NASA’s next class of 10 candidates for astronauts includes more women than men for the first time in the more than 60-year history of the Space Agency.
The six women and four men include engineers, scientists and former military staff. In particular, two former SpaceX employees, including Anna Menon, who flew to the job in 2024 as part of the Polaris Dawn mission of the company, including the first commercial space walk. Menon is also the first candidate for astronauts who has already flown to a job.
The new Astronaut Group will be on board while NASA works to promote his Artemis program to send people back to the moon. NASA has said that the goal of the program is to learn how to maintain a human presence on the Moon and use those lessons about future missions for Mars.
NASA also racing to return to the moon before China reaches the moon surface with its own astronauts.
“I will be damned if the Chinese defeated NASA or go back to the moon,” said Sean Duffy, the American transport secretary and the acting manager of NASA, during a ceremony in the Johnson Space Center in Nasa in Houston. “We are going to win. We love challenges. We love competition.”
The new candidates for astronauts will train for the next two years before they are eligible for flight assignments, including missions to Lage Earth’s lane or to the Moon. One of the candidates was also one of the first Americans to put feet on Mars, Duffy said.
“Not pressure, Nasa,” he said. “We have some work to do.”
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Published on September 23, 2025
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