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2h ago

NASA Unveils 10 New Astronaut Candidates, First Class With More Women Than Men

Two years of training now begin for roles tied to Artemis-era missions.

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US Sen. Ted Cruz, right, makes comments as the astronaut candidate class of 2025 is introduced during a ceremony at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025.
FILE - Workers on scaffolding repaint the NASA logo near the top of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., May 20, 2020. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
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Overview

  • The cohort includes six women and four men, marking the first NASA astronaut class with a female majority.
  • Ten candidates were chosen from more than 8,000 applicants for NASA’s 24th astronaut class, the first since 2021.
  • Anna Menon is the only selectee with prior spaceflight, having flown on the private Polaris Dawn mission after working at SpaceX.
  • Candidates will train for about two years before becoming flight-eligible for assignments to the International Space Station and future lunar missions under Artemis.
  • They will join a corps of roughly 41 active U.S. astronauts, with officials noting potential eligibility for later Artemis flights and, longer term, missions to Mars.