Astronauts’ Right Stuff Is Different Now : Space: Today’s explorers are better educated and more diverse, both sexually and racially. Physical tests are less grueling than before.

It used to be that astronauts were chosen for the right stuff; they were independent, tough test pilots who could surmount the unknown hurdles on the way to the moon.

With the first seven Mercury astronauts that boiled down to a stereotype: white, small-town, male.

All that has changed.

Now, astronaut judge Duane Ross presides over files of candidates, 1,971 of them, filed alphabetically in cabinets in a small converted warehouse.

They represent the young and the old, men and women, engineer and space novice, scientist and space buff, all of whom share one thing--they want to be astronauts. Early next year, 12 to 19 of them will be.

Explanations always vary about what it takes to enter this esteemed circle. These 21st-Century explorers, whose hobbies include classical flute, dance, bridge, needlework, baking and literary criticism, still have the right stuff, but the definition has changed.

“In the Mercury program, the job was to get there and get back in one piece,” says Ross, manager of NASA’s astronaut selection office at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “The thing you were asking these people to come and do was really scary business. You had to have the right kind of person to deal with that kind of thing.

“There is still some of that (risk-taking) involved just because of the nature of the program. So, from the standpoint of courage, what it takes, I guess there’s still some of that stuff involved. But it’s certainly more research and scientific and engineering in orientation now than it was in the past.”

NASA’s senior spaceman, John Young, says today’s astronauts are better educated, as they should be. Young, a former Navy test pilot and moonwalker, was in the second group of astronauts chosen in 1962, following the seven famed men of Mercury by three years.

He is, at 61, still an astronaut and still enthralled with space.

“Shoot, when we were picked, I didn’t know how to spell ‘astronaut’ because I didn’t know what the thing was,” Young says. “Some of these candidates have wanted to be an astronaut ever since they were born almost. They’ve pointed their careers toward becoming an astronaut.

“It’s changed a lot, but I think the motivation is pretty much the same.”

Alan B. Shepard Jr., America’s first space traveler, is 67 now and a millionaire businessman in Houston.

“All of us were there because we believed in what we were doing,” Shepard says. “Today, astronauts still believe in what they’re doing. It’s a very personal challenge.”

Astronaut Group 13 reflects NASA’s learned look. Eight of the 23 candidates selected in 1990 have doctorate degrees. Another two are medical doctors. All but two have at least a master’s degree.

They all got their silver astronaut wings July 29 after completing the required year of training at Johnson Space Center. Their induction brought to 195 the number of Americans accepted over the decades into this elite group.

But still, America’s astronauts are overwhelmingly male, white and aviator-skilled. Of the current 97 astronauts:

* Seventeen are women, including four of the six who broke the sex barrier in 1978. Astronaut Jan Davis considers it a good representation, given the fact that fewer women than men have the necessary backgrounds. “We’re all there because of our qualifications. We’re not there as token women. That is more important than looking at the numbers,” says Davis, 37, who has a doctorate in mechanical engineering.

* Five are black. One of them--physician Mae Jemison--is a woman. She says plenty of blacks are qualified but many simply do not apply. “We have to make sure minorities and women know they are welcome in the astronaut program, they are welcome in space exploration and they are welcome in science,” says Jemison, 34, who joined NASA in 1987.

* Three are Latino.

* One is Asian-American.

* Fifty-six are military, including Air Force Maj. Eileen Collins, who last year became the first woman to be named a shuttle pilot candidate. Barring injury, she will become the first female shuttle commander. The remaining 41 are civilian engineers, physicians, physicists, chemists, astronomers and geologists.

Jemison expects a boom in the number of astronaut-scientists--and thus a boom in women and minorities--as NASA gets closer to building a space station and sending crews to the moon and Mars.

“It’s a necessity,” Jemison says.

Unlike some of their predecessors, today’s astronauts see themselves as ordinary folk. Their ages range from 31 to 62; the average age is just under 41. Most are married with children. A few are married to each other.

Davis and husband Mark Lee will become the first married couple to fly in space next year.

“It probably helps since we understand each other’s schedules and demands. Other than that, it’s really no big deal,” Davis says.

Astronaut M. Rhea Seddon sees Davis and Lee’s flight as a natural step in normalizing space travel. Seddon is married to spaceman Robert (Hoot) Gibson. They live in the Houston area, as do all astronauts, and have two sons.

“We’re not like the ‘right stuff’ guys, who were really different,” says Seddon, 43, a physician and one of the first six female astronauts.

Astronauts no longer must endure the grueling physical tests that were required of the Mercury men, who were chosen for their stamina, size and skill. Nonetheless, qualifications are stringent.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens with at least a bachelor’s degree in engineering, biological or physical science, or math, followed by at least three years of related work experience or 1,000 hours of jet-flying time.

They must be no shorter than 4 feet, 10 1/2 inches; no taller than 6 feet 4 inches, and have uncorrected eyesight of at least 20-50 for pilots and 20-150 for mission specialists, correctable to 20-20.

The starting salary is about $45,000 a year. Top scale is $80,000.

Just about anybody can apply to be an astronaut, and just about anybody does. Recent applicants have included a professional football player, a television news celebrity and half a dozen or so prison inmates.

The football player had the right degree--engineering--but lacked experience as an engineer. The news celebrity had the wrong degree. The prisoners had, well, prison records.

Some applicants cite space travel experience. Ross identifies them as “the people who can stop the Earth from rotating through telekinesis, the people who have already been to the moon.”

There were 2,235 applicants for the Class of ’92 by the July 1 cutoff date, far less than the record 8,079 for the Class of ’78.

Ross and 19 others--mostly senior astronauts--spent July and August paring the qualified group of 1,971 down to about 300 “highly qualified” contenders. Of these, about 100 will be brought in for interviews starting in December.

Recommendations will be made. Background checks will be run. In February or March, 12 to 19 will be approved.

At least a third of them will be pilot candidates. The rest will be mission specialists, a position created for scientists and other experts in 1978 as NASA was gearing up for the first shuttle flight.

Ross knows it will be a tough decision. It always is.

“How can you go wrong? You can pick 20 people or you could just discard those and pick the next 20 people and do quite well,” Ross says.

So what does it come down to?

Ross says teamwork and extracurricular activities count.

“It can be coaching kids in Little League. It can be community work,” he says. “We look for people who have a good, broad background, but also people who are adaptable.”

It also helps to have pizazz.

“The people we select for the program communicate well,” Ross says. “They’re very open and friendly, you know, nice to have around. The kind of person you’d want to go off into space with.”

Persistence sometimes pays off. William Readdy, 39, an engineer and former naval test pilot, applied to the astronaut office three times before being selected in 1987. So did Davis.

Both will make their first spaceflight next year.

Ross makes sure that finalists know “the glamour part of it, the ride, is only a very, very tiny percentage of the total time you spend here.”

“When you walk in the door, you’re at least 3, 3 1/2 years away from being on board a launch,” he says.

Readdy has not minded the wait.

“It’s probably the greatest adventure and one of the most satisfying jobs you can imagine,” Readdy says. “I’m still probably black and blue from pinching myself.”