HOUSTON — NASA has introduced its new class of astronaut candidates, some of whom may be among the first people to set foot on Mars.
The cadre — the 24th astronaut class in NASA's history, and the first new one since 2021 — was announced today (Sept. 22) during a ceremony here at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
The newly unveiled astronaut candidates — five men and five women — were selected from a pool of more than 8,000 applicants. NASA's call for applications opened for about a month last year, just as the previous class graduated.
"This selection was challenging, competitive and very difficult, but what we have for you here today is a group of individuals who are not only exceptional but who will be inspirational for the United States of America, and for our planet," Norm Knight, NASA flight operations director, said during today's ceremony.
The group now waits for their training to begin. They'll soon report back to JSC, to take on lessons in spaceflight, spacewalks, engineering and every other skill an astronaut needs to survive in space.
They'll graduate in about two years, just as NASA aims to land astronauts on the moon as a part of the Artemis 3 mission. This new class will be too green for selection on Artemis 3, but if NASA's Artemis program continues under its current design, Artemis 3 will help lead to the establishment of a sustained presence on the lunar surface, as a proving ground for future crewed missions to Mars.
While some of these astronaut candidates (or ASCANs for short) may in fact stamp the first human boot prints in the Red Planet's rusty regolith, others may become the first NASA astronauts to live and work aboard a commercial space station in low Earth orbit (LEO).
The International Space Station (ISS) is heading for retirement in late 2030 or early 2031. NASA hopes to continue its LEO research operations once the ISS is gone but is preparing to shed the financial burden of ongoing station maintenance and management.
Instead, NASA plans to turn to commercial LEO destinations. Several companies are currently developing their own stations, including Blue Origin, Axiom Space and Vast Space. Depending on these projects' development timelines, there's a good chance that these new ASCANs will be the first NASA astronauts to live in space aboard a commercial outpost.
Here's a brief rundown of the newly announced astronaut candidates, with biographical details provided by NASA:
Meet the astronauts
NASA has high hopes for the new class, which could take part in some historic missions over the coming years.
"You are America's best and brightest, and we're going to need America's best and brightest, because we have a bold exploration plan for the future," acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said during today's event.
"We are going back to the moon," he added. "This time, we're going to stay, and from what we learn on our mission to the moon, we're going to go to Mars, and we're going to go beyond, into the unknown."
And the U.S. is going to notch that moon goal before China does, Duffy stressed.
"I'll be damned if the Chinese beat NASA, or beat America, back to the moon," he said. "We are going to win."
