Space Exploration

Many professions contribute to space travel efforts and space exploration draws on a wide variety of technologies. Aerospace careers include engineers, scientists, technicians, computer programmers, pilots, mechanics, graphic artists, and administrators. Careers specific to space exploration include those in the sciences such as physics, biology, and chemistry. Specialized engineering jobs in this industry include: applications engineers, chemical engineers, control dynamics engineers, materials engineers, and navigation systems engineers. Engineers are assisted by astronautical and aerospace technicians.

Astronauts, while among the most high-profile professionals in space exploration as the pilots and crew of spacecraft, are employed in fewer numbers. From 1959 to 2024, NASA has selected only 360 astronauts to fly on its space missions. Other professions in space exploration and the aerospace industry are astronomers and astrophysicists. Both astronomers and astrophysicists may apply their findings to aerospace manufacturing and space research and flight.

NASA is the major employer of space exploration professionals in the United States, but it often contracts with a company or companies to build spacecraft to its specifications. A manufacturer also may develop a technology on its own and then try to sell NASA on its usefulness. Space exploration technology is just one sector of the aerospace industry, which also covers the larger industry of commercial aircraft production. Although there are only 50 or so major aerospace manufacturers, thousands of subcontractors, from very large to very small companies, provide parts, supplies, materials, and sub-assemblies to the principal contractors. Manufacturers generally compete for contracts for military, commercial, and space aircraft.

Potential setbacks for space exploration, as well as a possible hindrance on the future growth of career opportunities in this industry came with the announcement in 2010 that funding for the human spaceflight program scheduled to succeed the space shuttle would be discontinued. This was followed in 2011 with the end of the space shuttle program. NASA's budget also has been cut more frequently than it has been maintained or increased, and the agency underwent a restructuring and streamlining program that included a goal of reducing its civil-servant staff.

A proposed 7.1 percent budget increase for NASA in 2024 "would have increased funding across the board, primarily supporting the Artemis lunar exploration program, Mars Sample Return, Earth Science, and technology development," according to the nonprofit organization, The Planetary Society. "A divided Congress, however, instituted strict spending caps for 2024 and 2025. Facing a smaller allotment by which to fund the government, congressional appropriators cut NASA's budget by 2% relative to the previous year, $2.3 billion less than the requested amount." Subsequently, NASA's 2024 budget totaled nearly $24.9 billion, as opposed to the requested $27.2 billion.