[bobbles]

TL;DR: School > Air Force > 'selected' by NASA.

I thought this was going to be an inspiring 'to do' list of candidates & application processes. Just being selected with no mention of reasoning or criteria was kind of a let down.

[cpayne]

Have you read "An Astronaut's guide to life on earth"[1] by Chris Hadfield?

Its written in a little more informal context than a to-do list, but it does describe what he (and his family!!!) had to go through.

Brilliant read!

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Astronauts-Guide-Life-Earth-Determinat...

[rdtsc]

Moreover. Astronaut != go into space necessarily. That is, being selected and trained doesn't mean you get to fly.

An acquintance of an acquintance was an astronaut for a decade (I heard of him in early 2000s) and never got to fly anywhere until then.