NASA Chooses 10 New Astronaut Candidates

NASA introduced its 24th class of astronauts today, six women and four men. It is the first astronaut class with more women than men and the first with an American who already has made an orbital spaceflight — Anna Menon, a biomedical engineer who was a member of Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Dawn crew in 2024. The 10 astronaut candidates will train for two years before becoming eligible for NASA missions to Earth orbit, the Moon and beyond.

The group was introduced to the public at Johnson Space Center in Texas, home to the NASA astronaut corps. NASA officials including Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy were joined by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas).

While the focus of the event was on the 10 astronaut candidates (“ASCANs”), Duffy, Cruz and Babin made clear their new jobs are not just about flying into space, but keeping America’s space program ahead of competitors like China.

Duffy reasserted his pledge: “I’ll be damned” if China gets to the Moon before America gets back. He told the ASCANS not only do they represent their families and communities, but NASA — “the most respected and revered agency in the whole wide world.” Turning to them with a smile, he added:  “No pressure.”  He went on to say they also represent America, “the greatest, most innovative, creative country that’s ever existed on the face of the Earth.”

Cruz said he was proud of the $10 billion he added for NASA in the reconciliation bill and it’s there to “beat the Chinese to the Moon,” have a sustained human habitation “on the Moon or in cislunar space,” and make sure “the first boot” on Mars will be that of an American astronaut.

[The reconciliation bill] included, among other things, $10 billion directly for NASA. I was proud to have added that $10 billion. And the funding is there because we will go back to the Moon. We will beat the Chinese to the Moon. We will have a sustained human habitation on the Moon or in cislunar space. We will continue to beat the Chinese in low Earth orbit. And with all of the learning from going to the Moon, from Gateway, from the ISS, we will go to Mars, and the first boot that ever sets foot on the surface of the Red Planet will be an American astronaut. It could well be one of these boots right here. — Sen. Ted Cruz

He added he has two teenage daughters and he’s “particularly proud of all the women here and the fact that, with Artemis, America is going to put the first woman on the surface of the Moon in the history of mankind.”

Babin, whose congressional district includes JSC, hammered again on the need to get back to the Moon before Chinese taikonauts arrive, which China plans to do by 2030.

… your mission is larger than exploration alone at a time of growing global competition. NASA’s work is more important than ever. It is national security, folks. We must be on that lunar surface first. We must remain a presence… in low Earth orbit. This is important. We cannot fail here.  — Rep. Brian Babin

As Duffy joked, “no pressure.”

The mood was ebullient and no one mentioned Friday’s report from NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel that SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System, key to landing NASA astronauts on the Moon, may be “years late.”

All 10 ASCANs have very impressive backgrounds, but Anna Menon is already quite well known in the human spaceflight community.  Menon was a JSC biomedical flight controller who left to join SpaceX to manage development of crew operations. She was part of the team that trained Jared Isaacman and his first private astronaut crew, Inspiration4. When selecting the crew for his second mission, Polaris Dawn, he chose Menon and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, then the director of SpaceX astronaut training, to join him and colleague Scott “Kidd” Poteet. Their five-day mission in September 2024 featured the first commercial spacewalk.

Now Menon is back at NASA as an astronaut candidate. Her husband, Anil, is already a NASA astronaut. His first spaceflight is scheduled for next year on Soyuz MS-29.

The other ASCANs are equally impressive as detailed in NASA’s press release:

Ben Bailey, 38, chief warrant officer 3, U.S. Army, was born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia and is completing a master’s in systems engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Bailey is a U.S. Naval Test Pilot School graduate with more than 2,000 flight hours in more than 30 different rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. At the time of his selection, Bailey was responsible for the developmental testing of emerging technologies aboard Army rotary wing aircraft, specializing in the UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47F Chinook.

Lauren Edgar, 40, considers Sammamish, Washington, her hometown. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Earth sciences from Dartmouth College, and her master’s and doctorate in geology from the California Institute of Technology. Edgar has served as the deputy principal investigator for the Artemis III Geology Team. In this role, she helped define lunar science goals, geology activities NASA astronauts will conduct, and science operations for NASA’s return to the Moon. She also spent more than 17 years supporting Mars exploration rovers. She was working at the U.S. Geological Survey at the time of her selection.

Adam Fuhrmann, 35, major, U.S. Air Force, is from Leesburg, Virginia, and has accumulated more than 2,100 flight hours in 27 aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35. He holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and master’s degrees in flight test engineering and systems engineering from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and Purdue University, respectively. He has deployed in support of Operations Freedom’s Sentinel and Resolute Support, logging 400 combat hours. At the time of his selection, Fuhrmann served as the director of operations for an Air Force flight test unit.

Cameron Jones, 35, major, U.S. Air Force, is a native of Savanna, Illinois. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California and the U.S. Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. He’s an experienced test pilot with more than 1,600 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft, including 150 combat hours. The majority of his flight time is in the F-22 Raptor. At the time of his selection, Jones was an Air Force Academic Fellow at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Yuri Kubo, 40, is a native of Columbus, Indiana. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University. He spent 12 years working across various teams at SpaceX, including as launch director for Falcon 9 rocket launches, director of avionics for the Starshield program, and director of Ground Segment. Earlier in his career, Kubo was a co-op student at NASA Johnson, where he completed multiple tours supporting the Orion spacecraft, the International Space Station, and the Space Shuttle Program. At the time of his selection, Kubo was the senior vice president of Engineering at Electric Hydrogen.

Rebecca Lawler, 38, is a native of Little Elm, Texas, and a former lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. She is a former Navy P-3 pilot and experimental test pilot with more than 2,800 flight hours in more than 45 aircraft. Lawler holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the National Test Pilot School. She also is a U.S. Naval Test Pilot School graduate. Lawler also flew as a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane hunter and during NASA’s Operation IceBridge. She was a test pilot for United Airlines at the time of selection.

Anna Menon, 39, is from Houston and earned her bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University with a double major in mathematics and Spanish. She also holds a master’s in biomedical engineering from Duke University. Menon previously worked in the Mission Control Center at NASA Johnson, supporting medical hardware and software aboard the International Space Station. In 2024, Menon flew to space as a mission specialist and medical officer aboard SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn. The mission saw a new female altitude record, the first commercial spacewalk, and the completion of approximately 40 research experiments. At the time of her selection, Menon was a senior engineer at SpaceX.

Imelda Muller, 34, considers Copake Falls, New York, her hometown. She formerly was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and served as an undersea medical officer after training at the Naval Undersea Medical Institute. Muller earned a bachelor’s degree in behavioral neuroscience from Northeastern University and a medical degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine. Her experience includes providing medical support during Navy operational diving training at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. At the time of her selection, Muller was completing a residency in anesthesia at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Erin Overcash, 34, lieutenant commander, U.S. Navy, is from Goshen, Kentucky. She holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s in bioastronautics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. A U.S. Naval Test Pilot School graduate, Overcash is an experienced F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet pilot with multiple deployments. She has logged more than 1,300 flight hours in 20 aircraft, including 249 carrier arrested landings. Overcash was part of the Navy’s World Class Athlete Program and trained full-time at the Olympic Training Center with the USA Rugby Women’s National Team. She was training for a squadron department head tour at the time of selection.

Katherine Spies, 43, is a native of San Diego and holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Southern California and a master’s in design engineering from Harvard University. She is a former Marine Corps AH-1 attack helicopter pilot and experimental test pilot, with more than 2,000 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, she served as UH-1Y/AH-1Z project officer and AH-1W platform coordinator during her time on active duty. At the time of her selection, Spies was the director of flight test engineering at Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation.

Corrected and updated:  The original version of this article said this is the first class of NASA astronauts with anyone who had already made an orbital spaceflight, Anna Menon, but she is the first American with that distinction. Robert Pearlman of CollectSpace clarifies that several non-U.S. astronauts flew to orbit as payload specialists on the space shuttle and later were selected into NASA astronaut groups 14, 16 and 17 to undergo training to qualify them as fully-trained astronauts. Some (but not all) of them subsequently made additional orbital spaceflights representing their own countries.