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1h ago

NASA Unveils 10-Person Astronaut Class With Female Majority and First Orbital Veteran

NASA cast the group as future contributors to Artemis with Mars as a longer-term aim.

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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 10 selectees, known as Group 24, were chosen from more than 8,000 applicants and introduced at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Sept. 22.
  • Anna Menon, a SpaceX engineer who flew on the Polaris Dawn mission in 2024, becomes the first NASA astronaut candidate with prior orbital spaceflight.
  • The cohort begins roughly two years of training before becoming eligible for assignments to the ISS, commercial stations and Artemis lunar missions.
  • Backgrounds span military test pilots, engineering and medicine, including geologist Lauren Edgar tied to Curiosity and Artemis III science and former SpaceX launch director Yuri Kubo.
  • Acting Administrator Sean Duffy highlighted plans to return Americans to the Moon before China and said one of the new candidates could eventually walk on Mars, while the group will join a corps of about 41 active U.S. astronauts.