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Army MOS · Aviation

40C Army Astronaut

Current service use not established

This code is listed in the directory. Inclusion alone does not confirm current service use.

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Overview

Army astronauts perform spaceflight duties for NASA and train for space shuttle and International Space Station assembly and flight operations. They develop, integrate, and implement crewed spaceflight hardware and software, support ongoing missions, and represent NASA, the Department of Defense, and the Army at meetings and public appearances.

Core Skills

  • Human spaceflight hardware and software integration
  • Spaceflight systems development and operational implementation
  • Operational support for crewed space missions

Civilian Career Paths

Career associations are editorial assessments of the cited evidence, not an official crosswalk unless the evidence explicitly says so. O*NET supplies civilian occupation information, not proof of a military match. Related experience does not confer civilian qualifications. Tasks and tools below describe civilian work, not military training.

NASA Astronaut (Civilian)

Army 40C service includes NASA spaceflight duties, crewed spacecraft systems integration, and operational mission support within the same astronaut profession.

How to prepare: Discuss civilian employment options with NASA and Army personnel offices using your existing astronaut qualifications and service record. Military astronauts remain on active-duty detail, so civilian employment requires a separate personnel determination rather than automatic conversion.

Software Developers

Development, integration, and operational implementation of crewed spaceflight software systems provide relevant experience for software requirements and interface work.

How to prepare: Build a small mission-support software portfolio project that demonstrates requirements analysis, interface integration, and testing to establish your current hands-on development capability.

What the civilian work involves
  • Analyze user needs and software requirements to determine feasibility of design within time and cost constraints.
  • Develop or direct software system testing or validation procedures, programming, or documentation.
  • Confer with systems analysts, engineers, programmers and others to design systems and to obtain information on project limitations and capabilities, performance requirements and interfaces.

Notes & Sources

Evidence for this guidance (4 documents)
  1. Army COOL MOC feed: 40C Army Astronaut

    [1] data/authority/army-codes.json entry 40C (OSD COOL feed, fetched 2026-07-25); DB rank officer, authority codeType officer

    Supports: Human spaceflight hardware and software integration, Spaceflight systems development and operational implementation, Operational support for crewed space missions, NASA Astronaut (Civilian), Software Developers (O*NET 15-1252.00)

  2. NASA: Become an Astronaut

    [2] Astronaut role, published candidate qualifications and selection; page updated March 27, 2026

    Supports: NASA Astronaut (Civilian)

  3. NASA: Becoming an Astronaut, Frequently Asked Questions

    [3] Civilian versus military applications, active-duty status and application instructions; updated August 5, 2025

    Supports: NASA Astronaut (Civilian)

  4. O*NET: Software Developers

    [4] O*NET 30.3 occupational data

    Supports: Software Developers (O*NET 15-1252.00)

Defense contractor jobs for 40C

Descriptions may be summarized for clarity. Verify all information with your branch career counselor or official military documentation before making career decisions.

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