English: Susan Helms is a United States Air Force Major General and a former NASA astronaut. This image is the most recent published by the U.S. Air Force, following her promotion to Major General (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Answer by Robert Frost, Trained NASA, ESA, JAXA, CSA, and RSA astronauts for the International Space Station program, on Quora,The NASA astronaut corps is a mix of civilians and active duty military officers, so what happens when they leave first depends on which of those camps they fit into.
If they are active duty military, and do not retire from the military prior to leaving their astronaut position at NASA, they will go on to whatever assignment the military wishes to give them. For example, Susan Helms was a member of the Expedition 2 crew. She returned to Earth in August 2001. By 2002, she had completed her post-flight duties such as debriefs and PAO activities and she decided to leave the astronaut corps. At that time, she was a Colonel in the US Air Force. The Air Force assigned her to become a division chief at the US Space Command in Colorado. Since then, she has become a Lieutenant General and is commander, 14th Air Force.
Astronauts that are not active duty military at the time of retirement from the Astronaut office have a tendency to move on to executive positions in the aerospace industry. Commercial space companies often hire astronauts for the vast experience and network of contacts that they can provide. For example, Garrett Reisman left NASA and became the Program Manager for SpaceX's Dragon-Falcon 9 crew vehicle. His AsCan classmate Chris Ferguson left NASA and is now Garrett's competitor, as he is the Director of Crew and Mission Operations for Boeing's Commercial Crew Program.
Gregory H Johnson is an example of an astronaut that was active military, but retired from the military while still an astronaut. He retired from the Air Force in 2009, but stayed with NASA until this month. In September, he will become the Executive Director for the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS). CASIS is a nonprofit that is responsible for managing payload science utilization of the ISS .
Some astronauts do indeed go into politics. The most famous is, of course, John Glenn. Glenn went on to be a senator for the state of Ohio for 25 years. He also ran for President in 1984. Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt became a senator for New Mexico. Most recently, Jose Hernandez left NASA in 2011 to run for a House of Representatives seat in his home state of California.
Astronauts are overachievers and some astronauts go on to very eclectic things. One of the most interesting astronauts is Story Musgrave. He was an active astronaut for over 30 years and holds the distinction of being the only astronaut to fly on all five space shuttles. While he was an astronaut, he obtained 7 graduate degrees - math, computers, chemistry, medicine, physiology, literature, and psychology. In his spare time, he was a trauma surgeon, pilot, and parachutist. Today he operates a palm farm in Florida, a production company in Australia, and a sculpture company in California. He is a landscape architect. He has worked for Disney's Imagineering team as a concept artist. He teaches design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. And he's a public speaker with 20 honorary doctorates.
Scott Parazynski left NASA in March 2009 and in May climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest. He is now the Director and Chief Medical Officer of UTMBs Center for Polar Medical Operations.
Academia lures some astronauts. Barbara Morgan was Krista McAuliffe's backup to be the Teacher in Space in 1985-1986. Twelve years later in 1998, she was selected to become a full astronaut. In 2008, she left to become a Distinguished Educator in Residence in both engineering and education at Boise State University.
Some leave the astronaut corps, but stay at NASA in management positions. Brewster Shaw became the Deputy Director, Space Shuttle Operations at KSC. Since then, he has left NASA and been an executive at Boeing and for awhile was the Chief Operating Officer for United Space Alliance (the 10,000 employee contractor that operated the Space Shuttle and provides most of the operations personnel for the ISS).
This question originally appeared on Quora: What do astronauts do once they leave NASA? More questions:Astronauts:What is it like to live in space? NASA:How does NASA use machine learning? Astronauts:What would astronauts do if their faces itch when they're in spacesuits? Entities 0 Name: NASA Count: 14 1 Name: Air Force Count: 3 2 Name: California Count: 2 3 Name: Boeing Count: 2 4 Name: US Air Force Count: 2 5 Name: Susan Helms Count: 2 6 Name: Scott Parazynski Count: 1 7 Name: United States Air Force Count: 1 8 Name: Garrett Count: 1 9 Name: Garrett Reisman Count: 1 10 Name: US Space Command Count: 1 11 Name: Pasadena Count: 1 12 Name: Robert Frost Count: 1 13 Name: KSC Count: 1 14 Name: Gregory H Johnson Count: 1 15 Name: Mt. Everest Count: 1 16 Name: Boise State University Count: 1 17 Name: Disney Count: 1 18 Name: PAO Count: 1 19 Name: Australia Count: 1 20 Name: Quora Count: 1 21 Name: CASIS Count: 1 22 Name: Ohio Count: 1 23 Name: Commercial Crew Program Count: 1 24 Name: Story Musgrave Count: 1 25 Name: Chris Ferguson Count: 1 26 Name: CSA Count: 1 27 Name: JAXA Count: 1 28 Name: Florida Count: 1 29 Name: Academia Count: 1 30 Name: ESA Count: 1 31 Name: SpaceX Count: 1 32 Name: Advancement of Science Count: 1 33 Name: United Space Alliance Count: 1 34 Name: Jose Hernandez Count: 1 35 Name: Barbara Morgan Count: 1 36 Name: Center for Polar Medical Operations Count: 1 37 Name: Colorado Count: 1 38 Name: Glenn Count: 1 39 Name: Harrison Schmitt Count: 1 40 Name: Brewster Shaw Count: 1 41 Name: RSA Count: 1 42 Name: House of Representatives Count: 1 43 Name: John Glenn Count: 1 44 Name: Earth Count: 1 45 Name: Krista McAuliffe Count: 1 46 Name: Art Center College of Design Count: 1 47 Name: New Mexico Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1qNc1qv Title: A Canadian's View On Our Disrespect Of President Obama's Presidency Description: EgbertoWillies.com America - He's Your President for Goodness Sake! By William Thomas There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a republican or democrat, but the President of the United...
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