{"id":9743,"date":"2025-09-23T00:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T16:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/a-geologist-a-former-spacex-launch-director-and-a-commercial-astronaut-meet-nasas-10-new-astronaut-candidates\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T00:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T16:32:16","slug":"a-geologist-a-former-spacex-launch-director-and-a-commercial-astronaut-meet-nasas-10-new-astronaut-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/a-geologist-a-former-spacex-launch-director-and-a-commercial-astronaut-meet-nasas-10-new-astronaut-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"A geologist, a former SpaceX launch director and a commercial astronaut; meet NASA\u2019s 10 new astronaut candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
NASA\u2019s 2025 Astronaut Candidate join together after being announced to the public on Sept. 22, 2025. From left to right, Erin Overcash, Katherine Spies, Cameron Jones, Ben Bailey, Adam Fuhrmann, Rebecca Lawler, Imelda Muller, Yuri Kubo, Anna Menon, Lauren Edgar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With its eyes on creating a persistent human presence on the Moon and pushing closer to crewed exploration of Mars, NASA announced its newest class of astronaut candidates.<\/p>\n

The collection of ten women and men from across the United States were selected from more than 8,000 applications submitted. They represent the 24th astronaut candidate (ASCAN) class picked by NASA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d said Norm Knight, Director of NASA\u2019s Flight Operations Directorate.<\/p>\n

One by one, the new astronaut candidates, donning blue flight suits, walked across a stage at the Teague Auditorium at the Johnson Space Center, greeted by a the applause of a full house filled with family, friends, fellow astronauts and dignitaries. It was their first public event that marks the beginning of their two-year training.<\/p>\n

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Rebecca Lawler, 38, a test pilot for United Airlines, excitedly takes the stage at an auditorium at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center. Lawler was one of ten people chosen as NASA\u2019s newest group of astronaut candidates. Image: Will Robinson-Smith \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to those who spoke on stage, NASA played a prerecorded message from the astronauts onboard the International Space Station who help make up Expedition 73.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a close-knit group in the Astronaut Office and we\u2019re thrilled to welcome you into the fold,\u201d said NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who arrived on orbit back in April. \u201cYou can always count on us for support, but you should also lean on each other as a class too. The people sitting beside you right now will become more than colleagues. They\u2019ll become lifelong friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

This new group of ASCANs, who will be named at a later date by the 23rd astronaut class, \u2018The Flies\u2019, is the first group of astronauts comprised of more women than men. It\u2019s also the first cohort since Astronaut Group 11 in 1985 that didn\u2019t include any African-American candidates.<\/p>\n

Among the six women in this group is Anna Menon, one of a small subset of astronauts who have flown in orbital space prior to being selected as a NASA astronaut. The SpaceX employee, who has been involved with training astronauts on the company\u2019s Dragon spacecraft, was a mission specialist and medical officer for the commercial, free-flying Polaris Dawn mission in September 2024.<\/p>\n

Her husband, Anil Menon, was selected as a member of The Flies, which were named in 2021. They are just the fourth married couple to simultaneously serve as active members of NASA\u2019s astronaut corps.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Anna Menon, 39, a mission specialist and medical officer on SpaceX\u2019s Polaris Dawn mission, waves to a packed auditorium at the Johnson Space Center on Sept. 22, 2025. Menon was one of ten people selected by NASA as part of its 24th group of astronaut candidates. Image: Will Robinson-Smith \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another SpaceX alumnus who is part of this new class is Yuri Kubo. The 40-year-old from Columbus, Indiana spent 12 years at SpaceX where he served as the director of avionics for the Starshield program and at another point, as launch director for Falcon 9 rocket launches.<\/p>\n

Lauren Edgar, 40, is no stranger to NASA. Before her current role working at the U.S. Geological Survey, she was the deputy principal investigator for the Artemis 3 Geology Team, helping to establish goals for future astronauts who will explore the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

As has been the case with previous cases, there are multiple military pilots who are now in the pipeline to become astronauts. That includes Erin Overcash, 34, who is a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy.<\/p>\n

In additional to logging more than 1,300 flight hour across 20 aircraft, Overcash also trained alongside the USA Rugby Women\u2019s National Team while she was a participant in the Navy\u2019s World Class Athlete Program.<\/p>\n

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Erin Overcash, 34, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, fist bumps Cameron Jones, 35, a major in the U.S. Air Force. They were two out of the ten people announced by NASA as the newest group of astronaut candidates on Sept. 22, 2025. Image: Will Robinson-Smith \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fellow Navy pilot Rebecca Lawler, 38, accumulated more than 2,800 flight hours across 45 aircraft. Among her more unique flight experiences, she flew as hurricane hunter for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).<\/p>\n

She was serving as a test pilot for United Airlines when she got the call from NASA.<\/p>\n

Other active service members selected by NASA include Ben Bailey, the 38-year-old chief warrant officer in the U.S. Army, and Adam Fuhrmann, at 35-year-old U.S. Air Force major, and Cameron Jones, the 35-year-old major in the U.S. Air Force. Bailey and Fuhrmann are both from Virginia while Jones crew up in Illinois.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the group of ten are Imelda Muller, a 34-year-old former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and resident in the anesthesiologist department at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Katherine Spies, a 43-year-old U.S. Naval Test Pilot School graduate who was serving s the director of flight test engineering at Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation when her name was called.<\/p>\n

Correction: A previous version of the story stated that Anna Menon was the first astronaut candidate who had previously flown in orbital space before being selected as a member of an astronaut candidate class. There were multiple international payload specialists for space shuttle missions who were subsequently selected as members of NASA astronaut groups. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA\u2019s 2025 Astronaut Candidate join together after being announced to the public on Sept. 22, 2025. From left to right, Erin Overcash, Katherine Spies, Cameron Jones, Ben Bailey, Adam Fuhrmann, Rebecca Lawler, Imelda Muller, Yuri Kubo, Anna Menon, Lauren Edgar. With its eyes on creating a persistent human presence on the Moon and pushing closer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[977,302,190],"class_list":["post-9743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-24th-astronaut-class","tag-johnson-space-center","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}