The American astronaut's

On July 21, Atlantis successfully landed after the last flight, marking the end of the US shuttle program.

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Picture 1 of The American astronaut's
Many astronauts leave NASA because it is impossible to know when Dragon or other US spacecraft flew into space

Many NASA astronauts are having a headache about the future. Their greatest concern is whether they can continue to stick with their passion for conquering space again. After July 21, only the Russian Soyuz spacecraft made flights into space, according to The Washington Post. American astronauts who flew into space this year will have to " line up " for at least five more years to reunite the International Space Station (ISS). In the near future, every year NASA only expects to send 4-6 astronauts by Soyuz ship to ISS with a terrible high cost: $ 56 million per person.

In 2001, NASA had about 150 astronauts, this figure dropped to 92 people in October 2009 and 61 people today. Can't wait another 5-6 years, many of them decided to " run away" from NASA. Astronaut Garrett Reisman said: ' We are in transition and the situation seems very difficult '. Last May, after completing an 11-day flight in space, this mechanical engineering doctor decided to " land " California-based SpaceX. This partner has just signed a $ 1.6 billion contract with NASA to carry out supplies for ISS. At SpaceX, Reisman met his former colleague Kenneth Bowersox. Both are studying the Dragon's ship project to bring people to space in the future.

In another case, astronaut Pamela Melroy left NASA since 2009 and moved to work at the US Civil Aviation Authority (FAA). In the near future, she will also cooperate with SpaceX at the space tourism division. Mrs. Melroy once controlled the shuttle twice and commanded the team to fly into space. She explained the reason for parting with NASA was that it was impossible to be sure about future work and 'don't want to worry about getting involved in one of the last flights '.

Currently, no one can know after the space shuttle, when Dragon or other US spacecraft can fly into space. President Barack Obama and the US House of Representatives have instructed NASA to develop a new generation of manned multi-purpose spacecraft (Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle - MPCV) with the goal of conquering asteroids. Estimated budget in 2011 for this project is about 1.2 billion USD. However, there has been no official test for MPCV so far and no flight plans have been planned.

Previously, new American astronauts, though waiting a long time, sometimes up to 10 years, were allowed to fly into space but they were sure that would happen. With 4 Americans and 5 foreigners who were recently recruited by NASA in 2009, their cosmic dreams seemed much more precarious. For the first time since 1970, ' apprentice ' astronauts do not practice to fly on the shuttle but spend at least 5 years preparing for the mission on the ISS. In addition, 30-40% of the training program is conducted abroad and they must learn about 400 hours of Russian language. If all goes well, from now until 2016, there will be 6 astronauts to fly to ISS.