The ways NASA's astronaut office picks a crew from the members of its esteemed corps is something of a mystery.
But with the space agency's 2018 selection of Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to fly SpaceX's now imminent rocket launch of its new Crew Dragon spaceship, the process seems obvious in hindsight.
Each man graduated from the same crop of astronaut candidates in 2000. Each is an engineer and flew military aircraft. Each has flown to space twice aboard a space shuttle. Each married a fellow astronaut who's journeyed to space and fathered a son with her. Each spent years working with SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk in 2002, to perfect the commercial spaceship they will now attempt to ride to orbit.
Image: NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are scheduled to be the first people that SpaceX launches into orbit. SpaceX
