The impending Artemis launch reminded me of this:

When I was young, one of my best friends applied to be an astronaut. (That is, to get into the training program). I was completely certain she would get in. Her credentials were flawless — she was brilliant; she had a master’s degree in engineering; she worked designing (among other things) military aircraft and flight suits that protected against g-loc; she was super-fit, doing dance, rock-climbing, circus school, and running; and she had pulled more Gs than probably any other woman in the Western hemisphere while working on the flight suit.

She didn’t even make the first cut.

When I expressed my surprise to her, she told me to look up the resume of Canadian astronaut Roberta Bondar (as an example) to see the kind of people she was up against. The qualifications of people that get into astronaut programs are… well, damned impressive.

My friend has, sadly, left us now. But all these years later her child is finishing their PhD in ‘rocket science’, and has already done an internship at NASA.