T O P I C R E V I E W |
Robert Pearlman | NASA's official portraits of its 2009 astronaut candidate class (including JAXA and CSA candidates) have now been released. The following 14 ascans, nicknamed the "Chumps", have their official portraits. Click on thumbnails or photo number for high resolution: |
Robert Pearlman | Class photo via source, not yet available in higher resolution. |
Playalinda | Incredible portraits. I viewed those on my 42" HDTV via VGA cable and they are indeed poster size. I can see the pics partial and move around to see, for instance, the name tags. You can see any skin imperfections. Amazing! |
mjanovec | It's interesting to see that they are all facing the same direction in their individual portraits, with the exception of Kate Rubins. |
Delta7 | quote: Originally posted by mjanovec: It's interesting to see that they are all facing the same direction in their individual portraits, with the exception of Kate Rubins.
Probably why it took so long to get approved. |
Greggy_D | I hope they crop out the cover over the front bench. Looks extremely messy on the ground. |
space4u | Rats! NASA still doesn't have new ascan official photo in biographies for Kate Rubins and two others! Argghh... |
Leon Ford | Such a great looking group. Do you think any of them will ever get a chance to fly? |
space4u | They may make it to the ISS on a Soyuz -- but that's it for now it seems... |
carmelo | Same fate of Group 6 (The Excess Eleven) I have fear. |
Delta7 | Most of these people could easily be around for the next 25 years. That's 2035; a lot can and will happen between now and then, I'm sure. A NASA official, (Duane Ross?), said this group will likely revert to the pre-Shuttle status of having flown one or two missions by the time they call it a career, like the average Mercury/Gemini/Apollo era astronaut. I doubt any of them will beat the record of Franklin Chang-Diaz and Jerry Ross, nor would I believe any of them expects to. |
Robert Pearlman | Here is the class photo as pictured above (JSC2009E215201) in high resolution. |
space4u | Yea Kate Rubins official bio now has her new photo! |
SPACEFACTS | Will there be a group patch? |
Robert Pearlman | Yes, the patch is designed and going through the approval process through NASA. According to one of the class members, it will make its debut when they graduate from basic training. |
Fra Mauro | I wonder how many of them will actually fly. |
Robonaut | US astronauts have about 4 to 5 slots a year available on ISS. According to the latest plan ISS will continue until 2020 but I do not think anyone thinks that will be the end of it. As long as the members of the latest group have patience they will get to fly. I doubt if there will be anything else available for US astronauts in the next 10 years or so. |
tegwilym | quote: Originally posted by Fra Mauro: I wonder how many of them will actually fly.
They will just get to run around in the cool blue suits and call themselves "astronauts". |
Delta7 | There will be plenty of opportunities for them to fly on an ISS expedition. The question is more "How many of them will fly more than once?" |
Jay Chladek | quote: Originally posted by tegwilym: They will just get to run around in the cool blue suits and call themselves "astronauts".
No different from the Peacocks class. I asked Marshburn about that back when he finished training and became part of the astronaut pool and he said NASA made no promises that any of the 2004 class were likely to get a flight at all and certainly not on shuttle. He said even with the uncertainty, they all jumped at the chance. As it stands now though, all the Peacocks have gotten to fly or are scheduled and they are flying shuttle and ISS missions. The reason is a lot of the older members of the astronaut pool have retired and moved on to other things. I see it no different with the Chumps. Shuttle won't be around, but they have pretty much all signed on to be ISS astronauts. Given the shuttle's retirement and the uncertainty of NASA after shuttle, I sense that a few other members of the astronaut corps will be moving on unless they are already in training cycles for missions right now. As such, some or all of the Chumps will likely fly sooner then anyone thinks. |
MSS | Has anyone seen the official NASA's ascan 2009 litho as from this link? Thanks for assistance. |