For NASA, 'The Right Stuff' takes on a softer tone

— -- Social skills weren't part of the job description for America's first astronauts.

Piloting the one-man Mercury capsule was a dangerous new endeavor. A sure touch on the stick and a willingness to risk death trumped being a nice, chatty guy. And some of the first space fliers weren't.

Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard was known as the "Ice Commander" for his chilly glare. Colleagues Deke Slayton and Gus Grissom thought they'd had "a deep talk" if they exchanged 40 sentences during a cross-country flight, Tom Wolfe wrote in his book The Right Stuff.

Now that icon — the astronaut as a grim-faced, laconic test pilot — is being nudged aside.

NASA is taking applications for a new crop of astronauts, and for the first time in decades, its ranks will not include anyone whose sole job will be to pilot spacecraft. With the shuttle retiring in 2010 and its replacement on the drawing board, there will be nothing to pilot.

The first group of astronauts was the Mercury Seven, chosen in 1959. The next class, the 20th, will include people with experience as pilots in the military, but it won't have much resemblance to the inaugural gang. Now NASA is looking for those who can play well with others in the close quarters of the International Space Station.

"The old concept of The Right Stuff— the rugged test pilot, the individualist — is just not going to work," says Jason Kring, who studies human-spacecraft interaction at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

The newcomers' only ticket to orbit until at least 2015 will be to sign up for a long stay on the space station. They'll get there on Russian spaceships led by cosmonauts.

At the station, astronauts' main duties are to conduct experiments, keep the station running and stay in their crewmates' good graces. For that, NASA needs an affable, tolerant guy or gal who is more researcher than jet jockey.

The shuttle is commanded only by test pilots, but the station is captained mostly by engineers and scientists. Current station commander Peggy Whitson is a biochemist. The spaceship that will replace the shuttle is likely to be commanded by scientists and test pilots.

Recent station crewmembers include astronaut Clay Anderson, a wisecracking engineer who wept openly over leaving the station in November, and Sunita Williams, an easygoing sports buff and jock who loves to talk about the Boston Red Sox and her dog.

"You need to be more of a people person" to serve on the station, says astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who has flown on the space shuttle and commanded the station. "You can't just be steely-eyed, no matter how competent."