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With add ons though FSX can be very realistic, you can get complex jet add ons with all systems simulated, where every button and switch does what it's supposed to and can be flown from real world manuals - actually you'll struggle to fly without them. You can get GA aircraft that show accurate stall and spin behaviour and you can get weather add ons that are so accurate it registers the gust in the sim when one of my dogs breaks wind in the real world.
The base game is very good to learn the basics with though, esp if you're new to flight sim, then you can expand it as you like. HTH.
Also as stated by others, there are many addons that can bring FSX closer to the real thing.
But it has a good flight physic simulation for home computers, like Race 07 has the best touring car physic simulation for home computers, people might say it is realistic, well it is not, there is a world between pc racing and real touring cars, so there will be also a huge difference between computer flight simulators and real life piloting.
FSX etc. are all games. For more realism, you need a true cockpit, and someone to operate the sim. Applications like FSX automate a lot of stuff that's done by a team of humans in professional flight simulators, so there's always going to be limitations.
In terms of graphics and sound, though, most commercial flight simulators look quite a bit worse than FSX. FSX is realistic enough that some flight schools will accept a few hours of flight sim as time spent in classroom. It's good for learning the basics of IFR flight, especially the Cessna 172. Prepar3d in particular is being marketed as the next-gen low-end commercial flight sim, but it seems to me like a slightly glorified FSX. You're not supposed to license P3D unless you are using it for commercial purposes, i.e. you're not supposed to use it for entertainment, but... come on...
There was also a commercial version of FSX, but it was pretty much the same thing as entertainment FSX, just with licensing and ports for proprietary vendors. For instance, if you had an airline like Strawberry Air, you could import a real Strawberry Air cockpit into the sim for your pilots to play with. I think Microsoft sold a couple copies to the gummint, but beyond that I don't think it was widely accepted.
The first step to real world aviation, though, is real world flight lessons. If you want to fly, you need to get into those lessons as soon as you can! If you have money, you can get your private pilot's license. The first part of private flight training usually isn't expensive, and it's worth it to see if you like flying a real aircraft. When you get closer to your license, it can get more expensive.
If you have no money, you'll be joining whichever branch of your national military that has the airplanes. Most astronaut corps require Air Force service, Japan in particular. You'll also need strong grades in University and an advanced degree or two.
It's almost easier to start your own space agency. Strangely, though, Elon Musk doesn't seem at all eager to go up in one of his own rockets yet. Astronauts will be needed!
Commercial airline pilots follow a different career path than astronauts. They both can have flying hours in military jets, though. Either way, you work your way up from private to a commercial license, and then from props to jets.
If you are young, you can get into Air Cadets, which is a very good way to get started. You go up in gliders quite quickly, and you learn extremely valuable stick and rudder skills. You'll see if physically and mentally you have what it takes to fly. Something like colour blindness or an inner ear disturbance can wash you out quickly, so it's better to know sooner rather than later. Plus, you might discover that you love a ground job in aviation, like engineering, maintenance, ATC, design, etc.
As Twelvefield said the military is probably the best route for most people, if you can get involved with air force cadets or some youth military training scheme early and you do well they might have scholarship schemes to help you through college etc. It depends which country you're in.
It's not important how "realistic" FSX is at this stage, think of it like an interactive book for learning about planes and how they work and fly and you'll find it's more realistic than any book you might have got from the shelf.
As you're interested in space flight you might want to look into this too
http://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/
it looks like a cartoon kids game but actually you can learn a lot from this about how real space flight works (I've heard it's very popular at NASA) and it's a fun game.
As people have said its as realistic as you want it to be, with add-ons its essentially a full training simulation with many of our customers being rated pilots, CFI's and CFII's using the sim with our software (And the same for many other developers) to stay current and practice etc.
I'm very proud each time a new pilot posts on our forums or facebook about how our Accu-sim simulation of the cherokee, 172, 182 etc helped them get through there PPL or IFR rating etc.