The Salary of Astronauts & Space Tourism

Scuid Mhór

Hey, Mr Fegelian gets to make tons of threads so I'm going to take this to the next level and increase the quality of threads here as I am probably one of the best posters on the internet.

Anyway, I've recently been thinking about the salary of astronauts. I googled the average salary of an astronaut and was told the following by Google:

According to NASA, civilian astronauts are awarded a pay grade of anywhere from GS-11 to GS-14, so the income range is relatively wide. Starting salaries begin at just over $66,000 a year. Seasoned astronauts, on the other hand, can earn upward of $144,566 a year.

So we are talking roughly 50 - 130k in euro a year by my estimation. Does this not seem absurdly low for an individual as highly specialised and who has gone such rigorous training as an astronaut? Surely in the intelligence economy an astronaut should be getting paid significantly more than that. Is there just not enough money in civic space exploration; should astronauts unionise and advocate for private space exploration in the hopes of securing higher salaries? Are there any astronauts on boards.ie who could fill us in on this. I really think that's a terribly low salary for a job that requires so much training. A surgeon would make more.

Also, speaking of space, would you go to space as a tourist? How much would you pay for it. I think I was reading that Tesla were planning on sending people up for a round trip at 250k per year. It would probably be a cool experience, get a few Instagram pics, you know yourself. I wouldn't do it myself as I have a crippling fear of heights.

Over to you, After Hours.

BeerWolf

They shoulda been TDs.

Degag

Scuid Mhór wrote: »

Are there any astronauts on boards.ie who could fill us in on this.

May be a long shot there Jeff.

Sharp MZ700

Seems a lot to be paid for looking out a window.

corner of hells

Degag wrote: »

May be a long shot there Jeff.

Definitely a couple of spacers posting now and again.

corner of hells

Sharp MZ700 wrote: »

Seems a lot to be paid for looking out a window.

Luas drivers the same thing.

Scuid Mhór

Degag wrote: »

May be a long shot there Jeff.

I wouldn't be too surprised to find out a few astronauts were floating around boards.ie somewhere :cool:

Lost implants

Anyone that's mad enough to sit on 2m kilos of rocket fuel, in a machine powered by 150,000 moving parts, all supplied by the lowest bidder, should be paying for the privilege

Lyle Lanley

Way more than what a bus driver gets for essentially the same job.

Lost implants

Scuid Mhór wrote: »

I wouldn't be too surprised to find out a few astronauts were floating around boards.ie somewhere :cool:

Plenty of space cadets for sure

Sharp MZ700

corner of hells wrote: »

Luas drivers the same thing.

They should wear helmets and be on danger money too.

endacl

Astronauts are mostly cargo till they get to work onsite in specialities that are actually relatively common on earth. They’re scientists and engineers in a cool location. And are pretty highly paid when compared to their earthbound counterparts.

The main perk of the job is they get to go into space on top of a bleedin’ rocket! I’m sure many would do the job for free for a few years for that opportunity.

uch

Imagine how much cake you could buy with that