Be One of Australia’s First Astronaut Pilots!
Virgin Blue and Virgin Galactic have announced an “out of this world opportunity” whereby
two pilots now flying for Virgin Blue could become astronaut pilots of the future! Six Virgin
Blue pilots will be short listed and sent to the United States to undergo final selection by
NASA.
All Virgin Blue 737 pilots with a minimum of 500 jet hours are invited to apply for the 27
month secondment to train as fully-fledged astronaut pilots and fly space tourists on the
Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo from 2008/9 onwards.
The successful candidates will relocate to the USA and will undergo highly specialised
training including nine months of aerobatic, fast jet and executive aircraft for zero gravity
flights training. They will then spend the next nine months flying the Virgin Galactic
mothership named “White Knight” and will also participate in Mission Control work - the
last nine months will be spent flying Virgin Galactic Spaceship missions into space. Once
they have completed their 27 month secondment they will return to Virgin Blue as
Australia’s first qualified pilot astronauts.
The two selected Virgin Blue pilots will have the opportunity to command SpaceShipTwo
on its missions.