Mike Hopkins talks about what improved his NASA astronaut application, working in Italy!
Christopher Lusardi
Catching Up With Col. Mike Hopkins, USSF
Published: Oct 25, 2021
Publisher: Notre Dame Alumni Association
Question: What would you attribute to the difference being between your third rejection and finally being accepted on the fourth attempt?
Answer: You know. That's a great question because theoretically at that point in time, there wasn't a lot of difference in my application in terms of the things I had done. Like I did Flight Test, and so I had a lot of experience in flight tests and that hadn't really changed in that last few years.
So, what made the difference? You know. At the time, I was working for the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. So, this is the number two military person. And so, when they're writing a recommendation for you, sometimes that helps.
And quite frankly, sometimes there's a little bit of luck involved.
And so, what I mean by that. You know the last class 2017. There was 18,000 applicants. And, we had selected 13. And so, there's not a lot of time to look at an application right. And, we had gotten that number down to. I don't know say 10,000/11,000.
And out of that group, there's an astronaut that's going to look at all of those, each application. So, you don't have a lot of time to spend on it. And so, sometimes as they're cycling through those, you know. They're just making a very quick judgment of yep okay this person is competitive or not.
And, sometimes you got to get a little bit lucky. And so, I certainly think that was the case for me.
And then also though, I think. There is the perseverance, right. And, it wasn't the first time that they had seen my application come across the table. And so, at least there was some familiarity with my application.
And then, the other thing that happens is. You know. Each time you're kind of adjusting a little bit, right. Because you know, when you get rejected, particularly I would say on that third one. You know that one was pretty tough because I felt like. I was where I needed to be.
And so, you've got a choice at that point, right. You can sit there and decide you can be bitter about it and blame the process, blame whatever. Or, you can sit there. And, you can reflect. Is there anything I can do to try and improve, to adjust.
And so, I took the latter approach. And, I think I made. You know some adjustments to. You know to my application. I you know. I did some different things in my career at that point in time.
And, all of those, I think helped lead to finally getting selected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peHf8n6poA8&t=953s
Question: So, you mentioned earlier adjustments you had to make between your applications to NASA. And, I was just wondering what kinds of adjustments those were? Whether they were with the Air Force or leadership opportunities or personal life?
Answer: Yeah no, that's a great question. So, I'll go back then to between my second application. I’d gotten the rejection letter.
And, my wife and I, we were kind of at a decision point in our career of what we wanted to go do. And, I thought at the time. Because one of the people that did get selected on that cycle, he was a flight test engineer like myself. And, he had his Ph.D. I only had my Masters at this time.
And so, we were sitting there thinking. Oh well, I need to go off and get my Ph.D. I really didn't want to do it though. And, we had another opportunity in our life in the military to go live overseas and study, but in a non-technical field.
And so, I really thought. You know. If I did that which would be good for our family it'd be a great experience. But, that was really going to take me out of running for NASA. And so, we ended up selecting to go overseas and study.
And, I thought. At that point that I was giving up my dream of being an astronaut. Because I just thought, I wasn't going to have done the things I needed to do. But then, it's interesting because. And so, that changed my application, right.
That took me down a path. And, that one wasn't intentional, right. But, it was probably one of the best moves I could have made. Because when I applied in 2009, the space shuttle was getting ready to retire. And so, the next you know. Where we were going at that point was continually having crews on board the International Space Station.
And so, the fact that I had gone off and spent time overseas living in. It turned out to be Italy. But, living in Italy and understanding that culture and understanding what it's like to interact. And, you know live amongst another culture and all of that.
Really in the end paid off huge dividends for actually getting selected.
And so, sometimes it's intentional things that you may do. And, sometimes it's things that you get lucky. And, you happen to walk into the right choice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peHf8n6poA8&t=1325s
Christopher Lusardi
Publisher: National Eucharistic Revival
Published: Nov 20, 2024
After four attempts over thirteen years, I was finally selected by NASA as part of the 20th astronaut class.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=PicN2vBOn6w&t=188s