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The Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts were all military test pilots. With a few rare exceptions, (Neil Armstrong for one) the astronauts were on loan from their military branch to NASA. They weren't paid by NASA, the were paid by their branch of service.

The Shuttle astronauts are a little different. The pilots are still former military test pilots, but the mission specialists come mostly from the science community. The mission specialists are paid directly by NASA while the vast majority of pilots remain part of the military.

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