NASA Astronaut Corps Center in Houston, although members may be assigned to other locations based on mission requirements, e.g. Soyuz training at Star City, Russia. The Chief of the Astronaut Office is the most senior leadership position for active astronauts in the Corps. The Chief Astronaut serves as head of the Corps and is the principal adviser to the NASA Administrator on astronaut training and operations. The first Chief Astronaut was Deke Slayton, appointed in 1962. The current Chief Astronaut is Patrick Forrester. Salaries for newly hired civilian astronauts are based on the federal government's General Schedule pay scale for grades GS-11 through
Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language The Steering Committee for the Test Of Proficiency-Huayu (SC-TOP) was established in November 2005 under the direction of the Ministry of Education of R.O.C. Originally called the Chinese Language Testing Center and renamed in January, 2007, the Committee aims to develop and promote an effective Chinese assessment system, mainly the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL), for Chinese learners worldwide to assess their Chinese proficiency. The SC-TOP has the following major missions: The Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL) is a standardized language proficiency test developed for non-native speakers of Chinese. It is the result of