Astronauts aren’t doing it for the money. The government doesn’t pay it’s people well for risk.  Contracting with the government is much more lucrative in this regards.  Military can often pay less than $50k a year[1] to people taking a ton of risk when a contractor taking significantly less risk is making $1000 a day.  This is one reason privatizing so much of the military is corrosive.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.militaryrates.com&#x2F;military-pay-charts-e1_e5_2016" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.militaryrates.com&#x2F;military-pay-charts-e1_e5_2016</a>