They live and train at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. Astronauts travel into space aboard space shuttles. Pilot astronauts command and pilot shuttles. Most pilot astronauts are test pilots from the United States Air Force, Navy, or Marine Corps. They are paid according to their military rank.
Mission specialists work with pilots to maintain spacecraft and the equipment aboard.
They also conduct experiments and launch satellites. In addition, they perform space walks to work outside the spacecraft. A third kind of astronaut is called a payload specialist. Most payload specialists are scientists who work for the owner of the payload. In January 1992, she and six other astronauts made an eight-day flight aboard the space shuttle Discovery.