NASA has released its 2025 Astronaut Candidate (ASCAN) with ten new astronaut candidates selected out of more than 8,000 applicants in the United States. The agency 24 24th class since 1959 is a historical one, with a majority of women, the first time in agency history. The chosen individuals will also take close to two years of training before they can be allowed to make missions to the low Earth orbit, lunar missions under Artemis, and perhaps crew missions to Mars.
Class Composition and Backgrounds
According to NASA, the 2025 astronaut candidates represent a diverse group of knowledge and experience. Ten of them include geologist Dr. Lauren Edgar, who contributed to the formulation of Artemis science objectives; Anna Menon, one of the former SpaceX operations engineers and a private astronaut; military test pilots Adam Fuhrmann and Cameron Jones; and physician Imelda Muller. The other members are engineers, flight surgeons and planetary scientists. Of the candidates, 6 are women, and this is the first NASA class to have a majority of women as part of it, reflecting the effort to be diverse as the agency gears up to voyage to the Moon and future missions to Mars.
Training and Future Mission
Beginning in early 2026, the candidates will undergo about two years of rigorous preparation at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, learning spacewalking skills, robotics, flight operations, geology, and space medicine while studying Russian for potential International Space Station assignments. Though not slated for the first Artemis lunar landing, they are expected to crew later Artemis flights, help build a sustained Moon base, and test systems for long-duration travel. Their experience will directly support NASA’s ultimate goal: sending humans to Mars in the 2030s.