NASA announced its 2025 Astronaut Candidate Class on Sept. 22, 2025. The 10 candidates, pictured here at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are: U.S. Army CW3 Ben Bailey, U.S. Air Force Maj. Cameron Jones, Katherine Spies, Anna Menon, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Erin Overcash, U.S. Air Force Maj. Adam Fuhrmann, Dr. Lauren Edgar, Yuri Kubo, Rebecca Lawler, and Dr. Imelda Muller.
Anna Menon, a mission specialist and medical officer on the Polaris Dawn mission, poses in 2024 with "Kisses from Space," a children's book she co-authored. Menon was selected as part of the 2025 NASA astronaut class.

The next generation of American astronauts have been introduced as the intrepid spacefarers who could be part of landmark NASA missions back to the moon and eventually to the surface of Mars.

On Sept. 22, NASA unveiled its 10 newest recruits who will undergo extensive training to become eligible for future spaceflight missions that could carry humans deeper into the cosmos than ever before. Chosen from more than 8,000 applicants, the incoming astronaut class includes test pilots, engineers and scientists – including one woman who, significantly, has already spent time in orbit.

Sean Duffy, NASA's acting administrator, said in a statement that the men and women will help "unlock the Golden Age of exploration.”

“I’m honored to welcome the next generation of American explorers to our agency," Duffy continued in the statement. "The 10 men and women sitting here today embody the truth that in America, regardless of where you start, there is no limit to what a determined dreamer can achieve – even going to space."

Here's a look at the individuals in NASA's new class of astronauts, and everything to know about what could be on the horizon for American space exploration.

Who are the new NASA astronauts of 2025?

The candidates – six women and four men – are the first class of astronaut recruits in four years since 10 new astronauts were selected as part of the 2021 class.

Here's a look:

  • Ben Bailey, 38, of Charlottesville, Virginia: an active member of the U.S. Army and graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.
  • Lauren Edgar, 40, of Sammamish, Washington: a geologist who worked on the Artemis II lunar geology team and who has helped support NASA's robotic rovers on Mars.
  • Adam Fuhrmann, 35, of Leesburg, Virginia: a major in the U.S. Air Force with 400 combat hours.
  • Cameron Jones, 35, of Savanna, Illinois: a major in the U.S. Air Force and a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School with more than 1,600 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft.
  • Yuri Kubo, 40, of Columbus, Indiana: a previous SpaceX employee who served as launch director for Falcon 9 rocket launches, among other roles.
  • Rebecca Lawler, 38 of Little Elm, Texas: a former lieutenant commander and pilot in the U.S. Navy with more than 2,800 flight hours in more than 45 aircraft.
  • Anna Menon, 39, of Houston: a former SpaceX employee who also previously worked in the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
  • Imelda Muller, 34, of Copake Falls, New York: a former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy who served as an undersea medical officer.
  • Erin Overcash, 34, of Goshen, Kentucky: a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy and a U.S. Naval Test Pilot School graduate with more than 1,300 flight hours in 20 aircraft.
  • Katherine Spies, 43, of San Diego: a former Marine AH-1 attack helicopter pilot and experimental test pilot, with more than 2,000 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft.

New astronaut has already been to space on Polaris Dawn

Among the new recruits, Menon holds the distinction as the only one to have already been to outer space.

In 2024, Menon was part of a four-person crew of private astronauts who orbited Earth for five days as part of the Polaris Dawn mission. Led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, a former nominee to lead NASA, the mission reached a number of historic milestones when its crew traveled to the highest heights humans had reached in more than five decades and later completed the first-ever nongovernment spacewalk.

Menon and her crewmate Sarah Gillis, both of whom worked as a space operations engineer for SpaceX at the time of the mission, also hold the record for the farthest from Earth any woman has traveled into space.

"It was a dream from a young age and I never thought it would happen," Menon told USA TODAY in 2024 before the Polaris Dawn mission got off the ground. She’s married to Anil Menon, who is also an active astronaut.

How many NASA astronauts are there?

The 10 new astronaut candidates join 360 others recruited by NASA since seven men, including the famous John Glenn, were selected in 1959 as the original "Mercury Seven." Prior to the new groups of recruits, NASA had selected 299 men and 61 women as candidates.

NASA lists a total of 41 active astronauts with the U.S. space agency.

What are the requirements to become a NASA astronaut?

Candidates have a number of qualifications to meet to be recruited as a NASA astronaut:

  • Be a U.S. citizen.
  • Have a master's degree in a STEM field.
  • Have either at least three years of professional experience related to the degree or 1,000 hours as a pilot in command, 850 of which are in a jet aircraft.
  • Be able to complete the NASA long-duration flight astronaut physical.

There are no age requirements for astronauts, according to NASA, which added that candidates selected in the past have ranged between the ages of 26 and 46.

How much money do astronauts make?

NASA lists the salary for astronauts as $152,258, but added that the rate "will be adjusted to reflect any increase in 2025."

What's next for the new astronaut class?

Ahead of the astronaut candidates is two years of intensive training before they could graduate and be eligible for any NASA missions. That includes learning "basic astronaut skills," NASA says, including spacewalking, operating the International Space Station, flying T-38 jet planes and controlling a robotic arm – like the one used at the space station to assist uncrewed spacecraft in docking procedures.

Could new astronauts go to the moon? What to know about NASA Artemis program

NASA's Artemis program is the agency's ambitious campaign to return Americans to the surface of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The last U.S. astronaut to land on the moon was Dec. 19, 1972, during NASA's Apollo 17 mission.

In the years ahead, NASA's Artemis campaign aims to establish a continuous human presence with a lunar settlement on the south pole, where water ice thought to be abundant in the region could be extracted and used for drinking, breathing and as a source of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel.

Mars missions ahead

Ultimately, the Artemis campaign is reflective of NASA's moon-to-Mars approach to getting the first humans to The Red Planet – any one of whom could be among the new group of recruits.

The settlement – which includes plans for a nuclear reactor – would serve as a base of operations to make further crewed space missions, including trips to Mars, possible.

NASA's plan appears to deviate from the vision of SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who is striving to develop the commercial rocket company's massive Starship spacecraft for private crewed trips straight from Earth to Mars.

Astronauts could be selected for trips to space station

NASA also regularly selects its astronauts for routine trips to the International Space Station.

Most recently, four international spacefarers – including two from other space agencies – embarked on a monthslong mission to the space station on a joint NASA-SpaceX mission known as Crew-11.

Though the outpost is due to be retired in the 2030s, NASA is seeking plans for a commercial replacement of the iconic orbital laboratory.

Contributing: Brooke Edwards, FLORIDA TODAY

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASA introduces new class of astronauts who could fly to moon, Mars. Here's a look

Reporting by Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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