“Astronaut candidates must also have skills in leadership, teamwork and communications,” NASA says on its website.
The qualifications of the perfect candidate also includes a physical demand – He/she should have good eyesight, must be between 5ft 2 and 6ft 3, and should have a good, normal blood pressure, which should not exceed 140/90 when seated.
Next up, applicants will be put through an endurance test – which needless to say, will be quite difficult – along with a series of interviews.
"It's a very special opportunity," Johnson said. He advised the next class of astronaut candidates to "take advantage of it" because "for each astronaut, there's 100 behind us equally qualified," reports CNNMoney in their interview.
Going forward...
If you passed all the above criteria, well done! But, this is far from over – you have a massive 2-year training and evaluation period coming up.
"It's like getting a full four-year college degree compressed into two years," Pettit said. "There's no summer breaks."
This training will allow you to learn skills that one requires during an actual mission. The tasks which you will be subjected to include:
Swimming laps in a 25-meter pool and treading water for 10 minutes while wearing a flight suit and tennis shoes.
Getting a SCUBA certification, which is important for when you're in space, since underwater environment is actually similar to the vacuum of space.
Riding a jet aircraft, mimicking zero-gravity environment in space. Trainees may have to take at least 40 such rides in a single day.
Learning the Russian language – communication is key and you need to be able to interact with the Russian cosmonauts at the space station and during launch.
Like the spacesuits? Well, you'll get your chance to familiarise yourself and get comfortable with the heavy, bulky and puffy space gear. Here's a warning - they are hot, uncomfortable and you have to crawl out of them to get them off.
When do you step into space?
If you're thinking you're ready for that step, you have another think coming. Stage two of training was merely another step forward, but NASA has a lot more where that came from – you still have to complete another level of space-specific training.
This stage involves everything you would be doing in space. The training starts months before you even head to the cockpit with your space suit on. For just a six-month stint at the space station, be prepared to go through an extra 2/3-year-long training.