NASA Names 10 New Astronaut Candidates as Training Begins

Overview

• The agency introduced the 10-member class at Johnson Space Center in Houston and started a nearly two-year training program.
• NASA says the group is being readied for International Space Station operations, Artemis lunar missions and, longer term, Mars exploration as it plans a shift to commercial stations.
• Backgrounds include test pilots, engineers, planetary scientists and physicians, with Anna Menon joining after flying on SpaceX’s 2024 Polaris Dawn mission.
• Training covers survival exercises, space medicine, geology, robotics, spacewalk simulations in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and high-performance flight.
• Six of the ten selectees are women, and NASA reports this class brings its total number of astronaut candidates to 370 since 1959.