"Mission specialist" is one of two categories of astronauts in the U.S. space program. Mission specialist astronauts team up with astronaut pilots to form a space shuttle or station crew, and together they operate the spacecraft and carry out the mission's flight plan.

Job Description

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) created the term "mission specialist" in 1978 when it hired the first group of space shuttle astronauts. The agency recognized that in addition to the two pilot astronauts in the front seats of the space shuttle (the commander and the pilot), the spacecraft would require additional crew members to conduct orbital operations. One mission specialist would aid the pilots as the flight engineer. Other mission specialists would operate the shuttle's Canadian-built robot arm and leave the shuttle cabin in protective space suits to carry out extravehicular activity (EVA), commonly known as space walks. They...