NASA presents 10 new astronaut candidates

NASA presented Monday 10 new astronauts, four men and six women selected from more than 8,000 candidates, to start training for future flights to the international space station, the moon and, finally, March.

“One of these 10 could actually be one of the first Americans to put their boots on the surface of Mars, which is very, very cool,” said Transport Secretary Sean Duffy, also the interim administrator of NASA, in welcoming remarks.

“No pressure, NASA, we have work to do,” he said.

Meet astronauts

This is the first NASA astronaut course with more women than men. It includes six pilots with experience in high -performance planes, a biomedical engineer, an anesthesiologist, a geologist and a former launch director of SpaceX.

Among the new astronaut candidates, Anna Menon, 39, a mother of two children who gave themselves up in orbit in 2024 aboard a dragon of the SpaceX crew as a private astronaut on a non -NASA commercial flight.

“I am so delighted to be back here with the NASA family,” said Menon. “While more and more people venture into space … We have this great opportunity to learn a huge quantity to help support these astronauts … and help keep them healthy and safe. It is therefore an exciting period to be here.”

Menon worked for NASA for seven years as a biomedical researcher and flight controller before joining SpaceX in 2018. She was a senior engineer and was then selected as a doctor on board during advertising Polaris Mission, chartered by billionaire Jared Isaacman.

She married her husband, Anil, in 2016 when the two worked for NASA. A former Air Force flight surgeon, Anil Menon joined SpaceX as the first doctor in 2018. He joined the body of NASA astronauts in 2021 and is now assigned to a long -term space station crew planned for the launch on board a Russian Soyuz next summer.

Anna and Anil Menon are part of several couples who served in the body of astronauts at the same time. But only one couple has already stolen in orbit – the astronauts of Mark Lee shuttle and Jan Davis in 1992.

The other members of the astronauts class 2025 are:

• Chief Warrant Officer of the Army 3 Ben Bailey, 38, a graduate of the Naval Test Pilot School with more than 2,000 hours to steal more than 30 different planes, including recent work with the Chinook UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47F helicopters.
• Lauren Edgar, 40, who has a doctorate. In geology of the California Institute of Technology, with an experience of supporting the Rovers of Exploration Mars of NASA and, more recently, as assistant members of the Mission of Landing Artemis 3 Moon of NASA.
• The Major de l’Air Force Adam Fuhrmann, 35, a graduate of the Air Force testing school with more than 2,100 hours flying F-16 and F-35 jets. He holds a master’s degree in flight tests in flight.
• The Major de l’Air Force Cameron Jones, 35, another Air Force Test Pilot School graduate as well as the Air Force Weapon School with more than 1,600 hours piloting high performance planes, spending most of its time piloting the Raptor F-22.
• Yuri Kubo, 40 years old, former launch director of SpaceX with a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering who also participated in Ultimate Frisbee competitions.
• Rebecca Lawler, 38, former Navy P-3 Orion pilot and experimental test pilot with more than 2,800 hours of flight, including stays trying a Hurricane Hurricane plane. She graduated from the Naval Academy and was test pilot for United Airlines at the time of her selection.
• Imelda Muller, 34, former naval underwater doctor with a medical diploma from Robert Larner College of Medicine from the University of Vermont; She finished her residence in anesthesia at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore at the time of her selection of astronauts.
• Navy lt. cmdr. Erin Overcash, 34, a graduate of the school of naval test pilots and a super Hornet F / A-18 and F / A-18F driver experienced with 249 aircraft aircraft carriers. She also trained with the United States National Rugby Women’s Team.
• Katherine Spies, 43, a former AH-1 attack helicopter pilot from the Marine Corps and graduate of the Naval Test Pilot School with more than 2,000 hours of flight. She was director of flight engineering in flight for Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. At the time of his selection of astronauts.

New astronaut candidates will spend two years training at the Johnson Space Center and the world with partner space agencies before becoming eligible for flight assignments.

Astronauts join the space race in uncertain times

New astronauts join NasaThe ranks at a time of great uncertainty given the budget cuts of the Trump administration, plans to withdraw the ISS at the end of the decade and the challenges faced by Moon Artemis Program.

Under the expected budget cuts of the Trump administration, future NASA crew rotation flights were extended from six months to eight, reducing the total number of flights to the end of the program. In addition, the size of the crews should be reduced.

It is not clear how many new astronauts could be able to go to the ISS before it is withdrawn or how much could walk on the moon. If NASA can get there before the Chinese, who aim for the end of the decade to their own landing mission on the moonis also uncertain.

But Duffy assured the new candidates of astronaut that NASA defeated, in fact, China to the Moon.

“Some dispute our leadership in space, say, like the Chinese,” he said. “And I’m just going to tell you this: I will be damned if the Chinese beat NASA or beat America on the Moon. We are going to win … The second space race at the Moon, participating in this great effort.”

As for flights to Mars, which the Trump administration supports, the flights are not yet on the drawing board, and most of the experts say that no such mission of NASA should be launched during the next decade and probably longer.