Overview

• NASA introduced six women and four men as its newest astronaut candidates in a ceremony at the Johnson Space Center.
• They were selected from a pool of roughly 8,000 applicants and range in age from 34 to 43.
• Eligibility criteria included U.S. citizenship, a master’s degree in a STEM field, at least two years of relevant work or 1,000 hours of flight time, and passing a fitness assessment.
• The cohort now begins approximately two years of training before potential assignment to NASA missions.
• Selected candidate Anna Menon previously flew on the private Polaris Dawn mission in 2024, underscoring increasing crossover between commercial and government spaceflight.