By: Julia Seibert
If you’re going to strap yourself to what is essentially a giant flamethrower and get shot into space in the name of your country, you’d think you’d be swimming in cash. For most astronauts, though, that isn’t necessarily the case; their job is thousands of people’s dreams, and governmental space agencies that employ them know that salary isn’t really the motivating factor. This might seem a little harsh considering the years, even decades of training, personal sacrifices, and the whole getting-shot-into-space thing. But once up there, they have one hell of a view – one that many people would pay their eyeteeth to see.
Who Are Astronauts?
Generally, an astronaut can be described as someone trained for or engaged in spaceflight. But these definitions have become a bit of a touchy subject as of late. Until the turn of the century, astronauts were specially trained government employees. This changed with the 2001 launch of Dennis Tito, who paid for a jaunt on the ISS and became the first-ever space tourist. 20 years later, billionaires Branson and Bezos raced each other to suborbital space and pinned astronaut wings on themselves. They had not, of course, received the exhaustive training required for career astronauts, prompting public mockery, but still received their commercial astronaut wings from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Though they no longer hand these out, definitions of what it takes to be an astronaut still vary according to who you ask, as do their salaries.
So, How Much Do Astronauts Get Paid?
Civilian Astronaut Salary
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
NASA’s civilian astronauts are paid on the General Service (GS) pay scale used for civilian US government employees. According to Federal Pay, astronauts would rank at GS 12-13, translating to $84,365 to $115,079 according to 2024 GS rates. However, NASA’s website lists its 2024 astronaut pay as $152,258 a year; its 2020 call for astronaut candidates listed a range of $104,898 to $161,141 at GS levels 13-14.
Roscosmos
As of 2021, cosmonaut candidates for Russia’s space program earn slightly under 300,000 rubles a month, while cosmonauts who have flown to space rake in an average of over 500,000 rubles (according to TASS). At the time, that came out to $3,935 and $6,558 a month, respectively, or $47,220 and $78,696 a year.
European Space Agency (ESA)
ESA astronaut salaries depend both on their rank and country of origin. While its pay is lower than NASA’s, salaries are exempt from income tax in that country. The lowest salaries, given to new recruits, is the A2 level; as of 2024, this could be anywhere from the £5,019.45 for UK astronauts to the €6,251.51 for the French (in dollars, that’s $6,479 to $6,778 a month, or $77,748 to $81,336 a year).
Upon completion of basic training, recruits move up to A3. This ranges from £6,194.65 (UK) to €7,713.99 (France), which is $7,997 to $8,363 a month or $95,964 to $100,360 a year.
After the first spaceflight, ESA astronauts get paid in A4, ranging from £7,199.16 (UK) to €8,964.10 (France). That comes out to $9,291 to $9,719 a month, or $111,492 to $116,628 a year.
Private Astronauts
Private astronauts are usually the ones shelling out for a trip to space, not the other way around. Still, there are a few exceptions; less mighty space agencies or countries without a full-on space program often pay for their astronauts to fly on SpaceX rockets via the company Axiom. Axiom – who also flies tourists – employs a few ex-governmental astronauts to command these missions, including Peggy Whitson and Michael López-Alegría, previously of NASA. Their salaries aren’t publicly known.
Military Astronaut Salary
US (NASA)
Many astronauts who fly with NASA have a military background. They depend on military salary and benefits since they don’t leave their military career and are only detailed to NASA for a while. Successful recruits tend to be at least at officer level due to the amount of experience needed (3 years of ‘professional related experience’ or at least 1,000 hours of Pilot-In-Command or PIC time, 850 in a ‘high-performance jet aircraft’).
US military astronauts’ ranks (and their salaries) vary greatly. For example, astronaut Matthew Dominick has been a Commander in the US Navy since 2020, which would give him a salary of $8,199.60 a month or $98,395.20 a year (according to Federal Pay). Raja Chari, meanwhile, has been a Brigadier General in the US Air Force since 2023, earning him $10,638.90 a month or $127,666.80 a year. Since they’re still in the military, these astronauts would also receive benefits including healthcare, insurance, and pension.
China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO)
China’s astronaut (taikonaut) program doesn’t publicly list salaries, but it recruits almost exclusively from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Astronaut pay isn’t the clearest here either, but as of 2023, the PLA Air Force offers $1,500 a month for ‘professional and technical roles filled by individuals with an undergraduate degree, and around $1,640 to those with a graduate degree,’ (as reported by Newsweek).
Read also: Top 15 Space Companies in the World [2024]
Factors Influencing Astronaut Salaries
Experience and Rank
Unsurprisingly, astronaut candidates tend to get paid less than those officially given the title. In many programs, a first flight also designates a pay raise. However, rank is especially critical for military astronauts, whose pay depends on their branch, rank, years of service, and performance.
Mission Type and Duration
Since most astronauts are paid a regular salary, they’re not usually or significantly paid per flight (at least not publicly).
Education and Training
Having specific academic backgrounds or military training helps to boost one’s chances of getting selected for training, but once you’re in, astronauts are generally treated equally by the space agency. The one known exception is NASA, which pays civilian astronauts via the GS scale, while military astronauts remain employees of their branch.
Astronaut Salary Compared with Other Space-Related Professions
Beyond the flashiness of their job, astronauts chosen for public space programs are governmental employees and paid as such – meaning their salaries don’t differ all that much from other highly-trained personnel that stay on the ground. Astronauts might even earn less than program supervisors or executives, whose pay levels would fall into the GS-14 to 15 range at NASA, for example. But the grass is generally greener on the private side.
As reported by Fortune, NASA engineer salaries range from $54,557 to $73,038 depending on academic level, while SpaceX’s job board lists aerospace engineer salaries at anywhere from $95,000 to $175,000 (a senior software engineer might earn as much as $220,000). Blue Origin’s listed salaries for engineers are even higher, often starting at $110,000 or $120,000 and ranging to $324,000 for a chief engineer. Entry pay for non-technical jobs ranges wildly, from about $42,000 for an early-career administrative position at Blue to $260,000 for a senior environmental lawyer at SpaceX.
Impact of Space Exploration on Astronaut Salaries
Apart from standard yearly adjustments, there’s nothing public that suggests governmental agencies might pay astronauts much more for lunar missions. However, the private sector is upping the ante for its spaceflight and exploration efforts, which could create new roles for private professional astronauts. Axiom is an early example of this, even though orbital tourism has yet to take off properly. If SpaceX’s dreams to land humans on Mars in the next decades come true, these too might need some professional astronauts at the helm – even though founder Elon Musk has said that passengers would still need to pay a few hundred thousand bucks for a trip.
What Are The Requirements for Becoming an Astronaut?
It might be the most coveted job in the world, but becoming an astronaut is no easy feat. To go the traditional governmental route, one would have to be a citizen of a country with a space program. Exact qualifications vary, but as a civilian, it’s almost imperative to have a university degree in science or mathematics – at least a Master’s, but the higher the better. NASA also requires at least two years of experience in the field. The alternative for many space programs is to have plenty of military experience (flying fighter jets is usually a must).
Astronauts undergo brutal training in preparation for physically and emotionally taxing missions, so there are a few mental and physical traits candidates must possess. As outlined by ESA, candidates must be under the age of 50, pass a medical test (different for candidates with disabilities), have vision correctable to 20/20, and have no addictions, diseases, or psychiatric disorders. There are also some physical constraints; ESA candidates, for example, must be between 150 to 190 centimeters tall. Candidates must excel at analysis, remaining calm under pressure, and communication, and should be prepared to spend time traveling and deal with stress. For those involved in the ISS, English and/or Russian is required, while astronauts headed to China’s Tiangong station must speak Mandarin.
What Are the Future Salary Prospects for Astronauts?
As an astronaut, you’re a rockstar; once you’re done flying into space, you pretty much have it made in the shade. Retired astronauts often return to their space agency to work in senior management positions, receiving accordingly higher salaries; military astronauts sometimes return to military duty and advance through the ranks. Others might work for private companies like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Axiom, or Boeing, all of whom have hired ex-astronauts for program management, consulting, advisory boards, or (in Axiom’s case) actual spaceflight; while their exact salaries are unknown, one can be relatively certain they’re getting paid some big bucks. Others still go into politics. This was the case with John Glenn (the first American in space), Harrison Schmitt, and Mark Kelly, all ex-NASA astronauts who ran for US Congress (Kelly, currently an Arizona senator, is even in the running to become Kamala Harris’s pick for VP). Most US congresspeople officially get paid some $174,000 a year. Finally, many ex-astronauts write books, give frequent talks, and even host TV shows (like Canada’s Chris Hadfield), all of which can rake in substantial sums too.
But on top of it all, they get to see something most people never will: the view of our planet from above, fragile and lonely against the gaping chasm of the cosmos. That alone is worth millions.
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