A4H Members Answer YOUR Questions About Professional Astronauts!

A few weeks ago, Dr. Ethan Siegel, who writes the blog "Starts With A Bang!" asked his readers to send questions to Astronauts4Hire. Many readers sent in questions, and the five best questions were chosen and sent to Astronauts4Hire to answer.

Finally, our long-awaited responses are here, and we have an extra-special surprise; not only do we have written responses, but a few A4Hers filmed their own video responses as well. Here's our video response to Question #3: "What are your primary motivations and personal goals for wanting to be an astronaut? Was this your childhood dream? Is there a special scientific, engineering, patriotic, or personal aspiration that you hope to fulfill?"

Check out the full "Starts With A Bang!" post for the text and video responses to all five questions, and keep an eye out for future video updates from Astronauts4Hire on our YouTube channel. Special thanks to Dr. Ethan Siegel for this public outreach opportunity!

A4H Member flies "Coach" on ZERO-G

A4H member and ZERO-G Coach Todd Romberger flew aboard Zero Gravity Corporation’s G-FORCE ONE aircraft out of Dallas, TX last weekend with John Carmack and members of the Armadillo Aerospace team. The flight included one Martian gravity (1/3-G) parabola, two lunar gravity (1/6-G) parabolas, and twelve weightless (0-G) parabolas. This was Todd’s 21st flight as a ZERO-G Coach and brought his total parabolas to 329, equating to roughly 2 hours and 45 minutes of total microgravity time. Video of the flight, taken by Matt Ross of Armadillo Aerospace (with a little camerawork help from Todd), can be found on Armadillo’s YouTube channel.

A4H Shiro interviewed for Pars3c blog

Astronautst4Hire President Brian Shiro is this week's featured space personality on the Pars3c blog.  In his engaging interview response, Shiro discusses how some of his past experiences led him to co-found A4H, what A4H has been doing so far, and his personal vision for the future of human spaceflight.

In the interview, Shiro explains how A4H will play an important role in defining what it means to be a commercial astronaut. When asked about the future of NASA and commercial human spaceflight, he replied:

Anyone following the discussions on NASA’s future lately has heard a lot about ... commercial vs. government ...  Although the term “commercial crew” is used often, people are usually talking the vehicles and not the astronauts.

In other words, the “crew” has largely been left out of the equation so far.  Astronauts4Hire is filling that void by building a viable solution for developing the commercial astronaut workforce.

Brian joins a long list of interesting people who have been past subjects of Pars3c High 5 posts, including astronauts Scott Parazynski and Kevin Ford.

Pars3c (pronounced “PAR-seck”) is a space blog written by Canadian journalist Elizabeth Howell.  Associated with the Space Tweep Society, her blog offers original articles on astronomy, spaceflight, and other space related topics.  We thank Elizabeth for interviewing Brian and helping spread the word about Astronauts4Hire.