<p>How does one become an astronaut? I've heard it involves a doctorate in physics or astronomy and incredible physical fitness, to boot.</p>
<p>I don't know if a doctorate is required, but a good move would be to go to MIT, do well, and be athletically fit. A huge portion of total flight time were MIT grads. </p>
<p>Anyone else have any thoughts?</p>
<p>Well one thing you have to have is perfect uncorrected vision. My family has a friend who is an astronaut and he has 7 Ph.d's. You need a good foundation in Physics and Mathematics.</p>
<p>That's incredulous. In what?</p>
<p>Go to Caltech, MIT, Michigan or Purdue, get a PHD in Aerospace Engineering or Physics, join the airforce and fly supersonic jets for 10 years, run 20 miles in under 2 hours and you would be able to compete with another 100 equally super-natural people for a shot at becoming an Astronaut! LOL Seriously, there is no one way of going about it.</p>
<p>A student at a local university (Franklin and Marshall) where I grew up was accepted into the NASA astronaut program a few years back (maybe 2 or so...). I believe her degree is in geology (probably the only way I would even remember this story being a geologist myself...) and I'm pretty sure she got in with her BS (but don't quote me on that). I guess I'm just trying to let you know you don't have to have the ivy league education to make it as an astronaut.</p>
<p>About 50 astronauts have come from the Naval Academy</p>