The National Aeronautics and Space Administration – or NASA, as it’s more commonly known – is curious as to why the dedicated followers of Starfield haven’t taken the opportunity to become “a NASA intern” yet.

A recent post on Instagram by NASA has gone viral. It features a space-themed cat meme with the caption, “Watching you play Starfield after not applying to be a NASA intern”. 

The caption reads: “NASA: We’ve got space at home” and attempts to link our current fascination with the stars to a recruitment campaign for future NASA experts. 

“Spaceships – Check. Exoplanets – Check. Crews – Check. Missions – Check. Consider applying for our Summer 2024 internship session.”

NASA made a Starfield post and it currently has over 4 million views from r/Starfield

Given the number of individuals immersed in Starfield, it comes as no surprise that the recruitment team wants to leverage our current fascination with outer space. While some players may find the promotion insensitive, the majority took it in stride with good humor.

When the post was shared on the Starfield subreddit, one player commented, “Planets irl are even more barren, no thanks NASA!” Another player added, “The immersion of actual space exploration is so shite!”

However, the response that most of us can relate to is:

Another individual confessed, “I am totally unqualified and probably too old to start going down that road. The game is the closest I’ll ever get. Let me have my fun NASA.”

According to TRG’s Editor-in-Chief Jake, “Starfield is a technically solid systems-heavy role-playing game that works well with a surprising degree of polish compared to previous Bethesda RPGs,” although he noted that “despite this, Starfield has no sense of character and the story lacks impact”.

In our Starfield review, we awarded it a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. We praised its “endless amount of things to explore”, deep skill system, and excellent starship combat. However, we felt that its middling ground combat, inconsistent writing, and “soulless” feel prevented it from achieving a perfect score of 5/5.

If you’re still uncertain, remember that you can try Starfield yourself at no extra cost by subscribing to Xbox Game Pass. 

Last week, we discovered that Starfield pays a bittersweet tribute to a devoted fan who never got the chance to play the game. App developer Alex Hay had been “following the [Starfield] project for years” but realized that the final delay, announced earlier this year, likely meant that he would never get to play it as he had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

Although Bethesda did not publicly respond, a fan who remembered Hay’s post recently found a note from him within the game.

Entitled “Alex Hay’s Note,” the note reads, “To all my friends and fellow explorers, I’m always with you, out there in the starfield. Love always, Alex Hay.”

If you’re looking for more captivating games, be sure to check out our selection of the best RPGs, as well as our list of the best single-player games.