NASA today named the 24th class of astronauts since the Mercury 7 in 1959, including the first person to have been to Earth orbit before becoming an astronaut. The class was chosen out of a pool of more than 8,000 applicants after an extended recruitment process that began in March 2024.
The space agency on Monday introduced the four men and six women who comprise its 2025 trainee class during a ceremony held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Following two years of basic training, the new candidates will be eligible for mission assignments in low-Earth orbit and on the Moon, as NASA's Artemis program works toward sending the first humans to Mars.
"We picked the best and the brightest, the most skilled, the best looking, the best personalities to take these 10 spots," said Sean Duffy, acting NASA administrator and secretary of transportation. "You are America's best and brightest, and we're going to need America's best and brightest because we have a bold exploration plans for the future."
In addition to Sean Duffy, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya and Vanessa Wyche, director of the Johnson Space Center, also spoke at the event.
NASA's 24th class of astronaut candidates ("ascans") at Johnson Space Center
in Houston at their announcement ceremony on Monday, September 22, 2025.
Credit: collectSPACE.com
They will next undergo lessons in orbital mechanics, basic spacecraft systems, spacewalking skills, robotics control, and other disciplines needed for spaceflight. Upon their graduation in 2028, they will become members of NASA's astronaut corps, which has 41 active members as of Monday.
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Given plans to retire the International Space Station in 2030, the new ascans may be too late to visit that complex, but they could launch to commercial orbital platforms that are under early development today. They could also be sent on missions to land at the Moon's south pole, with the first Artemis lunar landing targeted for mid-2027 at the earliest.
I personally don't see any problems using a term like Senator Ted Cruz talks about here but a few things come to mind. First and foremost, I'm an old guy, while this class is six women and four men, all of whom are not just at the "best of the best" levels, but all of them are closer to 40 years old than 22-ish, just out of college. Based on having worked with some really good women engineers, I assume that like those women I worked with, they're not without a sense of humor.
"Now I recognize that these guys are capable of pulling out a can of whoop ass, but I would humbly suggest next time, maybe we go with a different name than 'ascan' [pronounced 'ass-can,' short for astronaut candidate], like the collective branding can come up with something suitable to the occasion," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said at the event.
NASA's 2025 astronaut class portraits: Ben Bailey, Lauren Edgar, Adam Fuhrmann, Cameron Jones, Yuri Kubo, Rebecca Lawler, Anna Menon, Imelda Muller, Erin Overcash, and Katherine Spies. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel (Note: short biographies of all of them here)
In case she isn't immediately familiar to you, the one "ascan" who has actually flown in orbit before is Anna Menon, bottom row, second from the left. Anna was one of the four to fly on the Polaris Dawn mission, the private, crewed mission to do the first space walks ever by "civilians" and flew the farthest from Earth than any mission since the end of the Apollo program. That mission was in a Crew Dragon, commanded by Jared Isaacman, and while Anna was the medical officer on that mission, she was listed as being a SpaceX Engineer.
Congratulations to all 10 of the class. I have to say that at this point, it looks like they're not likely to fly to the International Space Station; at least, not all of them. There are other alternatives possible, and Artemis, of course, is really the emphasis of what was talked about.
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