Re: Excess astronauts -- what must be done

From: Paul Blay (ranma_at_saotome.demon.co.uk)
Date: 03/08/05 

Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2005 10:14:40 -0000

"Brian Gaff" wrote ...
> I don't know about your laws re age discrimination etc, but I'd suspect
> doing as you suggest may well not be legally possible. They will point to
> the fact that people are staying fitter longer and tell you to go away!

I believe there's a lot of controversy about mandatory retirement ages for
commercial pilots.

Two things:-

1. Some things do get worse when you get older (although when, what
and how much varies).
2. Retirement is _not_ based on an objective assessment of the individual
pilot's actual condition/ability. (In fact I think there is some fudge relating to
pensions that means a bunch of them will be able to work for five more
years than the rest).

I would hope policy for astronauts will be rather better - although I'm not
holding out much hope.

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