posted April 02, 2005 11:04 PM               

"Despite his "out-of-this-world" achievements, Aussie astronaut Andy Thomas admits he may be out of touch with the world back home.

On the eve of his 4th and last space mission, the 53 year old has revealed he has been looking for a job in Australia - but no-one is interested in employing him.

"I have put out feelers to some companies in Australia about employment and the reaction is "You've done great things, but we don't need someone who knows how to operate a spacecraft" Thomas told the Herald-Sun.

"It struck me as a little short sighted". "I was surprised and thought maybe I am out of touch with the way they are thinking ..... I think they are out of touch with what's going on in the world a bit".

Thomas said Aussie companies failed to see how that experience was worth employing. "What people fail to understand is that as an astronaut you get to do a lot of other things .... you work with complex engineering systems, you work with teams of people. I have had a lot of management responsibilities .... there's a lot of other skills that former astronauts bring that are very useful." (end)