NASA has 142 astronauts, and 46 have never flown in space. Some have recently completed the Astronaut Candidate training program, others have waited for years to be chosen for a mission in space.

The newest astronauts were warned that they may never get a chance to fly aboard a shuttle. The Space Shuttle fleet hasn’t flown in over 2 years (since the Columbia disaster) and the era of the Space Shuttle is expected to end in 5 years. The development of the next-generation of space vehicles could take until 2015. Some of the astronauts may never fly in space.

Even though they may never get to space, new astronauts are still eagerly signing up. The astronauts do other jobs while they wait for their chance to fly. All the astronauts are involved in the shuttle improvements and the ability to make repairs in space. They all contribute to the goal: return-to-flight. The next shuttle mission STS-114 has a scheduled launch date on May 15, 2005 and is going to the International Space Station.

Astronauts who are not assigned to shuttle crews for upcoming scheduled missions are assigned different return-to-flight tasks. They do research on developing a new space vehicle and work on President Bush’s moon-to-Mars plan outlined last year for NASA.