Old Astronauts4Hire Website

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 28, 2011 Astronauts4Hire Announces Summer Training Schedule Tampa, Florida – The inaugural Astronauts4Hire training class will perform a series of group astronaut training activities leading to eventual research specialist qualification during the month of July 2011. "Our training providers have been carefully chosen to provide comprehensive initial and recurring training for Astronauts4Hire," said Chief Operating Officer Dr. Jason Reimuller. "Their training programs will indoctrinate our candidates to the environment where they will be conducting experiments, greatly increasing the probability of full mission success. Candidates will also be well prepared to effectively react to possible mission contingencies." The upcoming group training activities include: July 6-8: Survival Systems USA Astronauts4Hire training participants will complete emergency escape and sea survival courses at Survival Systems USA located in Groton, CT. These p...

A4H Flight Member Kristine Ferrone recently presented at Alice Deal Middle School 's Space Exploration Day held at American University in Washington, DC on June 3, 2011. Other groups represented at the day-long event included FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation , First Orbit ,  Giraffe 'n' Ant ,  International Space University ,  NASA , New Space Magazine , Virgin Galactic ,  We Want Our Future , and more. Beginning with discussions of astronomy and early human spaceflight, the presenters transitioned to space tourism and commercial space by the afternoon. Ferrone engaged the 300 sixth grade students with a 20 minute presentation on Astronauts4Hire and what it is like to train as an astronaut. The excited students asked many questions about A4H training activities including NASTAR , SCUBA diving, microgravity flights, and survival training. They also enjoyed watching a video of an A4H Flight Member participating in a microgravity flight.  The class...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 31, 2011 Astronauts4Hire Announces TargetProcess Sponsorship Tampa, Florida – Astronauts4Hire is pleased to announce its sponsorship by TargetProcess, Inc. , an agile project management software provider. As part of the sponsorship, Astronauts4Hire is receiving complimentary licenses for TargetProcess’s online project management system. Astronauts4Hire uses TargetProcess to track tasks and concentrate on applying members’ volunteered time in the most productive way. "We are an organization spread across the United States, Canada and Europe, so communication and structured collaboration are essential to our daily business," said Astronauts4Hire Chief Technology Officer Amnon Govrin. "The customizability of TargetProcess’s On-Demand service have allowed us to adapt it to our unique needs." TargetProcess Vice President of Business Development Andrey Mihailenko praised the Astronauts4Hire implementation of TargetProcess software, noting that...

Adding to his recent high altitude and G-tolerance training , A4H member Dr. Erik Seedhouse completed unusual attitude training in a BAE Hawk 115 at 15 Wing of the Canadian Forces Base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. The training allowed him to develop aerobatic skills to track and control aircraft motion paths during unusual attitudes  and high G-forces .  His first-hand account of the exciting activity follows. At 0700 on 17th May I went to the Aviation Life Support Equipment (ALSE) office for my G-suit fitting which took about 30 minutes. After being fitted, the G-suit was tested on a rig to make sure the thing inflated properly.  Once that was done I moved on to the helmet fit.  Then, it was time for a review of how the parachute works – how to steer, when to release the survival pack (that's the yellow pack you can under my backside), and what to do if you have 'twists'. Next, it was time to visit the ejection seat trainer and take an ALSE exam on what to do ...

Astronauts4Hire received global media attention  in major TV, radio, print, and online news outlets following our September 2010 announcement that Vostok Pty Ltd had hired us to conduct microgravity flight tests of their new space beer.  After some flight schedule changes, we successfully carried out the first space beer test  in February 2011, completing our first research contract as "astronauts for hire."  Several news outlets took note of this accomplishment, including Fox News , Discovery News , MSNBC , Slashdot , FOOD Magazine , Beer and Brewer Magazine , and Hemispheres Magazine (on United/Continental Airlines). Hot on the heels of the successful final launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission, a new Reuters article titled "Australian beer hopes to boldly go into space" is making waves in the current news cycle.  Drawing upon interviews with Jaron Mitchell of the 4 Pines Brewery and Dr. Jason Held of Saber Astronautics Australia , as w...

The June 2011 issue of Discover Magazine includes a 2-page spread called " After the Shuttle: Astronauts for Hire ." Featuring interviews with A4H President Brian Shiro and former NASA astronaut Ken Bowersox  (now of SpaceX ), the article focuses on how the astronaut profession is changing in the post-Shuttle era.  It highlights one of the most important reasons we started Astronauts4Hire in the first place: to recruit and train the next generation of astronauts for the new age of commercial spaceflight.  The article is available on newsstands now.  We thank  Discover for taking an interest in A4H and the future of human spaceflight. Other articles featuring A4H, including last year's New Scientist interview and the widespread media attention paid to our first job , are listed on our  Media page .

The Space Shuttle Endeavour will soon lift off into history as it begins the STS-134 mission, signifying the penultimate orbital flight of the NASA Space Shuttle program. Flying aboard the vehicle will be student experiments bound for the International Space Station through the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP). The 16 experiments selected for flight include studies of cell biology, life cycles, seed germination, food preservation, and crystal growth. During the 14-day mission, A4H co-founder  Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto will monitor the experiments from the Kennedy Space Center, where she also helped prepare them for integration into the payload before the launch. After the mission she will retrieve samples from the experiments and return them to their respective Principal Investigators at schools across the country. Veronica Ann will help manage samples for use in ITA's Materials Dispersion Apparatus (MDA) and Liquid Mixing Apparatus (LMA) hardware. These...