How much do astronauts and astronauts get

    You can find data on the salary of an astronaut or astronaut on some Glassdoor.com or hh.ru as an April Fool’s joke. To this day, the number of people flying into space is small, and those who trust this are people with unique experience. Little is mentioned about such backstage details. But space agencies talk more about salaries than masturbation and sex in orbit .

    NASA (USA)


    In general, the astonaut salary figures in the comments on the post “ NASA opened astronaut jobs: salaries up to $ 145,000, moving to Houston is required, ” prompted the writing of the post . Meanwhile, figures for American astronauts are generally publicly available. Poke at a particular astronaut and get his income level will not work, but the scope is well known.

    When calculating salaries NASA astronaut made account of his skills and experience. Civilian astronauts pass as civil servants, so they are assigned the General Schedule pay scale categories from GS-11 to GS-14. Anyone can find out the amount of monetary compensation: here are the data for 2015 , but here are the data for 2016. The tables contain the amount of payments for the whole year, and not for the month. As you can see, these are amounts of the order of 50-150 thousand dollars a year . In a response dated August 21, 2013 on Quora.com, NASA employee Robert Frost mentions amounts between $ 5,300 and $ 11,790 per month .

    Military and officers most often go through O-4, O-5 and O-6. In the US Air Force these levels correspond to Major, Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel, respectively. These numbers are also available on the web . Frost’s answer contains an estimate of $ 6,500 to $ 8,650 per monthdepending on the length of service. Judging by the data on the Web, and after 2.5 years, these figures are at about the same level. But there may also be additional housing allowances and raid payments. For example, food payments can be up to $ 1,100 per month, housing benefits - up to $ 1,600 per month. Payments for raids are different, for example, up to $ 200 per month.

    Actually in orbit, NASA astronauts continue to receive their usual “earthly” salary, plus there is a small charge on per diem. For six months, it can drip about a couple of hundred dollars. This is a purely symbolic supplement that does not make sense - astronauts are still provided with food, housing and everything necessary. There is simply nowhere to spend per diem on the ISS.

    European Space Agency


    European astronauts pass through the categories from A2 to A4, which, according to Frost, gives figures of the order of 6.5 thousand to 10.5 thousand dollars a month . ESA does not provide accurate data, but the NATO website provides payouts of categories A2, A3 and A4 from 5.1 thousand to 7.3 thousand euros. When enrolled in the astronaut squad, beginners are transferred to A2. A3 can be obtained after completing basic training. Most often, an increase to A4 occurs after the first flight into space.

    Russian cosmonauts


    Figures get a little more difficult. News agencies and interviews are available. The data from December 2012 gives the monthly salary figures of 60.9 thousand rubles for a candidate for cosmonauts, 63.8 thousand for a test cosmonaut and 88.45 thousand for a cosmonaut (an experienced cosmonaut who teaches others). After the first flight, the salary was increased to 69.6 thousand. But this is only the basic component, to which good bonuses and bonuses are added. At that time, the dollar was worth about 30-32 rubles. Even then, material support was worse than that of commercial airline pilots.

    All this fades in comparison with a tangible payment for a 6-month stay on the International Space Station. In total, for six months in orbit, Russian cosmonauts receive the equivalent of order130-150 thousand dollars . Such amounts consist of the original contract and additional situations. For example, Progress space trucks regularly arrive at the station. An automatic docking system may experience some kind of problem. Management will have to intercept and dock the ship manually. This procedure may be paid extra. Overtime, extra days in orbit, unplanned operations - all this increases the amount of cash reward. According to astronaut Clayton Anderson, perhaps that is why astronauts so calmly and kindly communicate with the MCC: they do not want to jeopardize their monetary reward.



    Judging the quality of life by the size of the monthly monetary compensation is pointless. Not only reward structures, extra bonuses and taxes vary. The American astronaut will give a tangible amount for health insurance; more if he has dependents. The ESA Astronaut Training Center is located in Cologne, and renting it will be more expensive than in Galveston County, Texas. Some Moscow prices are higher than in the US, but much in Russia is much cheaper.

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