4 WIN NASA BERTHS.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - Three Air Force officers and a Navy pilot who works at Edwards Air Force Base will begin training this month as NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. astronauts. The four pilots - two first-time applicants and two men who kept applying - are among the 17-member class of astronaut astronaut, crew member on a U.S. manned spaceflight mission; the Soviet term is cosmonaut. Candidates for manned spaceflight are carefully screened to meet the highest physical and mental standards, and they undergo rigorous training. trainees picked by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial satellites (see satellite, artificial), this year out of nearly 3,000 applicants. ``In the last selection cycle, no one from Edwards went,'' said Air Force Lt. Col. Kevin Ford, one of the four astronaut trainees headed for Houston. ``We did well this time around.'' The others are Air Force Capt. Robert Behnken, Maj. Terry Virts, and Lt. Cmdr. Barry Wilmore, a Naval Test Pilot School instructor who is at Edwards on an exchange program teaching at the Air Force Test Pilot School. The four men will leave this month for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Behnken was selected as a mission specialist; the others were selected as shuttle pilots. NASA officials say selection to attend astronaut training is no guarantee of eventually flying in space. The astronaut training program takes one to two years of intense training and evaluation designed to both prepare trainees for future astronaut missions and evaluate their potential for service as an astronaut. If the four complete training, they will join 164 astronauts selected since the start of America's manned space program in 1959. Ford, plans and programs director at the Test Pilot School, has applied and reapplied to NASA since 1992. Twice, he had made it as far as the interview round. ``Persistence is a virtue,'' Ford said. After getting the phone call saying he made it this year, Ford went to the gift store at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC), located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. On March 26, 1976 it was named in honor of the late Hugh L. at Edwards and bought NASA pins and patches for his family. Ford drove home hoping to find his family to tell the news, but they weren't home. Ford left the patches and pins on a table. ``They got the message when they came home and saw the stuff on the table,'' Ford said. Wilmore, the Navy pilot, was another repeat applicant. Growing up during the Apollo era, Wilmore found the space program fascinating. Part of his training as a Navy Test Pilot School student was a field trip to Johnson Space Center. He began investigating the possibility of becoming an astronaut after that. Getting through the selection process is ``like a croquet croquet (krōkā`), lawn game in which the players hit wooden balls with wooden mallets through a series of 9 or 10 wire arches, or wickets. The first player to hit the posts placed at each end of the field wins. game with a lot of wickets to hit,'' Wilmore said. Behnken and Virts are both first-time applicants to NASA. They are also former students of Ford. Virts grew up in the NASA culture - his parents and his stepfather all worked at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately 6.5 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. in Maryland. Virts, a F-16 test pilot, had just finished a meeting when he got the call saying he was selected. For a few moments, he said, he was stunned stun tr.v. stunned, stun·ning, stuns 1. To daze or render senseless, by or as if by a blow. 2. To overwhelm or daze with a loud noise. 3. by the news. ``Everyone said I turned pale and was shaking,'' Virts said. Virts said he hopes to be involved in long-duration space missions. ``That's the future. If you're going to Mars and beyond Mars and Beyond is an episode of Disneyland which aired on December 4, 1957. It was directed by Ward Kimball and narrated by Paul Frees. This episode discusses the possibility of life on other planets, especially Mars. , you have to learn how to live for long periods of time in space,'' Virts said. Behnken is a flight test engineer on the F-22 fighter program, the Air Force's highest-priority weapons program. Behnken said he is a bit sad at having to leave that program behind. ``We all have great jobs. That the bittersweet bittersweet, name for two unrelated plants, belonging to different families, both fall-fruiting woody vines sometimes cultivated for their decorative scarlet berries. part of this,'' Behnken said. ``Being an astronaut will make up for that.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: BEHNKEN and VIRTS |
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