On Friday, NASA opened up its inaugural NASA Force program. They’re accepting applications until 11:59 pm tomorrow, April 21st. Participants will join NASA on temporary deployments, starting at two years. There’s no lower age limit (cracked teens are encouraged to apply).

It’s an idea plucked straight from the Apollo days. Back then, NASA recruited American stardreaming engineers to come and build the vehicle that would place the first man on Moon.

Now, NASA Force participants — per Pirate Wires’ exclusive interview with the agency last week — will have a chance to reclaim those dreams and build the projects that will place Americans on Moon again: this time, to stay.

May the (NASA) Force Be With You

NASA’s workforce is talented, but if we want to build a lunar base, fly nuclear-powered rockets, or even make it to Mars (and beyond), we’ve got to strengthen the capabilities that allowed the agency to achieve our moonshots in the first place.

One of those capabilities is our people.

But, similar to the broader American workforce, an array of master’s degrees, doctorates, and other accolades are increasingly required to obtain a meaningful position.

As a result of these stricter criteria, NASA’s ranks have grown significantly older. In 1969, the average age of NASA employees for the Apollo 11 Mission Control was 28. The oldest man in the room was 36.

As of 2021, the average age of a NASA employee was 48.

NASA wants to give bright early to mid-career engineers, scientists, private-sector technical operators, and other professionals the chance to learn from NASA’s sterling staff — and give them the training they’ll need to take on real responsibility in some of the agency’s most important projects.

Such as:

• Testing new rocket engines,

• Helping operate NASA’s lunar rover,

• And building NASA’s new spaceport.

But why now?

As Pirate Wires wrote in a piece on Administrator Jared Isaacman’s plans, NASA has offloaded many of its core competencies to contractors since the Apollo missions. The agency itself is doing less of the actual work of sending us to space — but offloading work to contractors is more expensive, involves less oversight, and often results in slower timelines than if NASA operators had just done it themselves.

Now, if they want to launch more than one rocket every three years, the agency will need to remember how to do things: starting with hiring.

NASA’s doors are open. Actualize that Halloween costume you wore at six years old. Ditch your stupid computer job for a star-bound star-spangled banner.

Go spaceward, young man, and grow up with the country.

—Ryan Hassan and Hunter Ryerson