How much does an Artemis astronaut earn?

Artemis II has no payroll of its own. NASA announced its crew in April 2023 — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen — and each one is paid through whatever channel already paid them. NASA's civilian astronauts are federal employees paid on the General Schedule; those who come from the armed forces remain on their service's payroll while assigned to Johnson Space Center; and Hansen is an employee of the Canadian Space Agency, which assigns him to the mission under the program's cooperation agreements.

There's no bonus for going to the Moon, for launch, or per day in flight. Assignment to a specific mission doesn't change an astronaut's grade or pay supplement: they earn the same the month they train in the pool as the month they fly over the far side. The only extra items are the ordinary per diem allowances of any official travel, trivial next to the base salary. In the 1960s there wasn't even affordable life insurance for someone flying to the Moon: the Apollo crews signed postal covers so their families could sell them if they didn't return.

The Artemis program has put astronauts back on the front page, and with them the old question of what someone doing this job earns. The answer disappoints anyone expecting elite-athlete numbers: the pay is that of a senior technical civil servant, comparable to a chief engineer or a public-health-system doctor, and below what many selectees used to earn as airline pilots, surgeons, or researchers. What's being compensated isn't the risk, but the qualification; the real incentive is the seat.