An astronaut is a person who is trained to travel in space. They are trained, equipped, and deployed by a spaceflight program to board a spacecraft. They carry out important missions to discover our universe. Astronauts must have a master's degree in addition to at least two years of relevant professional experience. They also might need to complete at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time on a jet aircraft. In Illinois, Astronauts get paid $81,216 to $105,579 a year.

My backup job would be an Astronaut. Even though I don't see myself actually doing this professionally, I feel like it was always my dream job when I was younger. I really like astronomy/space, I like the stars, moon, and the planets. I'm always interested and curious about the world around us and the world we live in, just imagining how big it is really excites me. There can be millions of new things out there… waiting to be discovered.