NASA Welcomes 10 New Astronauts as Focus Shifts to Moon and Mars

NASA has announced the selection of ten new astronaut candidates, marking a significant step in its ambitious plans for lunar and Martian exploration. This announcement was made on Monday, as the agency prepares to expand its astronaut corps for upcoming missions to the Moon and beyond.

The newly selected candidates include:
– Ben Bailey, 38, from Charlottesville, Virginia
– Lauren Edgar, 40, from Sammamish, Washington
– Adam Fuhrmann, 35, from Leesburg, Virginia
– Cameron Jones, 35, from Savannah, Illinois
– Yuri Kubo, 40, from Columbus, Indiana
– Rebecca Lawler, 38, from Little Elm, Texas
– Anna Menon, 39, from Houston, Texas
– Imelda Muller, 34, from Copake Falls, New York
– Erin Overcash, 34, from Goshen, Kentucky
– Katherine Spies, 43, from San Diego, California

Among this group, Anna Menon stands out as she has already completed a mission to low-Earth orbit as part of the Polaris Dawn mission last year, using a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Menon and her crewmate, Sarah Gillis, hold the record for the highest altitude reached by any female astronaut. Notably, she follows her husband, Anil Menon, who was selected in the previous astronaut class in 2021.

This selection marks a historic moment for NASA, as it features a majority of women—six compared to four men—the first time in the agency’s history that female candidates outnumber their male counterparts. The new candidates will undergo two years of rigorous training before officially becoming astronauts. This training will include practicing spacewalks in a 60-foot-deep swimming pool at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston and mastering the operation of NASA’s T-38 jet aircraft. Additionally, they will learn Russian, a necessity due to NASA’s ongoing collaboration with Russia on the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA’s current focus extends beyond the ISS, with the Artemis program aiming to return astronauts to the Moon. The Artemis II mission is scheduled for early next year and will involve four astronauts orbiting the Moon, marking the first journey beyond low-Earth orbit since the Apollo missions concluded in 1972. Following that, Artemis III aims to land two NASA astronauts in the Moon’s south polar region in 2027, although this timeline may be adjusted to 2028 or later. Future missions to Mars are anticipated to begin in the 2030s.

Even after the expected retirement of the ISS in 2030, NASA astronauts will continue to operate on commercial space stations currently in development. The agency is also working on an outpost known as Gateway, which will orbit the Moon and act as a staging point for lunar missions.

NASA typically seeks applications for astronaut positions every few years, and this current selection represents the 24th group of astronauts since the program’s inception in 1959. The first group consisted of seven military pilots for Project Mercury. The latest application cycle, which opened a year and a half ago during the Biden administration, attracted approximately 8,000 applicants.

April Jordan, the NASA official overseeing the selection process, and astronaut Victor Glover, who is assigned to Artemis II, emphasized the importance of diversity within the astronaut corps. “We want the group of astronaut candidates that we select to be reflective of the nation that they’re representing,” Jordan stated in an interview with The New York Times.

As NASA prepares for this new chapter in human space exploration, the agency’s commitment to diversity and inclusion remains a priority, ensuring that its astronaut corps represents a wide array of backgrounds and experiences.