Teacher faces rigorous tests at NASA

Published 12:00 am Thursday, October 23, 2003

Albert Lea High School teacher Ken Fiscus’ chances of being an astronaut are a lot better than he thought.

When the earth sciences teacher arrived at NASA this month for tests and interviews for one of three to six educator/astronaut positions, he learned that he wasn’t one of 120 applicants for the job, as he had thought, but one of 36. He started out as one of 2,000.

&uot;It was like, Oh, I’m in the top 36,&uot; Fiscus said, surprised to find himself with one in 12 to one in six odds.

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That week, Fiscus went through a battery of tests, met some extraordinary people, and dealt with concerns about leaving Albert Lea for Houston if he had to.

For one it’s in a large city.

&uot;I was getting nervous because I wasn’t sure if that was my kind of lifestyle. Nobody likes Houston’s weather,&uot; he said.

Secondly, the position doesn’t have a job description.

&uot;I’m interviewing for a job and they can’t tell me what it is. I’m way out of my comfort zone,&uot; he said.

But as the week went on he learned that his concerns weren’t unusual, and that the lack of a job description wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

He said that astronauts he met told him, &uot;They are always busy, but they never know what they’re going to do next.&uot;

Fiscus said that could mean traveling the country, going to space, or exploring projects of his own creation.

What impressed him most was that everyone at NASA loved working there and were all interesting. &uot;NASA has no problem getting good applicants,&uot; he said. He was also impressed by other applicants.

Some had applied for other astronaut positions, such as pilot, and regular mission specialist positions. Many of them had doctorates and one of them owned a robotics company.

Along with the rigorous physical tests and examinations, he was given several psychological examinations.

His first night he took a psychological exam with 1,700 questions, many of them strange, and oddly worded.

One question asked, &uot;Have you never not wanted to be alive?&uot;

Others were straightforward: &uot;Do you love your father?&uot;

Some were just weird, such as, &uot;If you wrote for a newspaper could you be the restaurant critic?&uot; Similar versions of that question included sportswriter and other positions.

&uot;I don’t know where they were going with that.&uot;

He said he didn’t second guess his answers, but other applicants found the psychological examinations exhausting. During the psychological interviews, one man was drilled with questions about a DWI he received 23 years ago after a police officer followed him from a bar.

He said his interview with more than ten NASA officials went well. Some applicants complained that many of the people present were creepy because they didn’t talk, but just stared and took notes. But Fiscus managed to talk to most of them, he said. &uot;I told you I interview well.&uot;

He told them that he wasn’t interested in a position where he wouldn’t be able to teach and wasn’t interested in spending six months in space.

Fiscus said that the FBI only does background checks on people that make the cut.

He and the other twenty applicants he spent the week with will e-mail each other when they hear from relatives, who may have heard from FBI agents.

So far none have. Fiscus said he thinks they may begin to make decisions after they finish interviewing all applicants in early December.

(Contact Tim Sturrock at tim.sturrock@albertleatribune.com or 379-3438.)