News NASA names 24th astronaut class, including prior SpaceX crew member

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NASA's 24th astronaut class since selecting the Mercury astronauts in 1959.


NASA's 24th class of astronaut candidates ("ascans") at Johnson Space Center in Houston at their announcement ceremony on Monday, September 22, 2025. Credit: collectSPACE.com

NASA has named its new group of astronaut candidates.

The space agency on Monday introduced the four men and six women who comprise its 2025 trainee class during a ceremony held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Following two years of basic training, the new candidates will be eligible for mission assignments in low-Earth orbit and on the Moon, as NASA's Artemis program works toward sending the first humans to Mars.

"We picked the best and the brightest, the most skilled, the best looking, the best personalities to take these 10 spots," said Sean Duffy, acting NASA administrator and secretary of transportation. "You are America's best and brightest, and we're going to need America's best and brightest because we have a bold exploration plans for the future."

"We are going back to the Moon, and this time we're going to stay. And from what we learn on our missions to the Moon, we're going to go to Mars, and we're going to go beyond, into the unknown," he said.

In addition to Duffy, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya and Vanessa Wyche, director of the Johnson Space Center, also spoke at the event. NASA's Director of Flight Operations Norm Knight and his deputy director, astronaut Kjell Lindgren, introduced the new candidates as they took their seats on the stage.

Ten to train

NASA's 2025 astronaut class portraits: Ben Bailey, Lauren Edgar, Adam Fuhrmann, Cameron Jones, Yuri Kubo, Rebecca Lawler, Anna Menon, Imelda Muller, Erin Overcash, and Katherine Spies. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel

The class—NASA's 24th since selecting the Mercury astronauts in 1959—was chosen out of a pool of more than 8,000 applicants after an extended recruitment process that began in March 2024.

The candidates include military officers, engineers, a physician, and a scientist. They are the first class to have more women than men. They are (lightly edited from NASA's announcement):

• Ben Bailey, 38, is a chief warrant officer 3 in the US Army. He 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 US 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 US Geological Survey at the time of her selection.
• Adam Fuhrmann, 35, is a major in the US Air Force. He 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 US Air Force Test Pilot School and Purdue University, respectively. Fuhrmann has deployed in support of Operations Freedom's Sentinel and Resolute Support, logging 400 combat hours. At the time of his selection, Fuhrmann was the director of operations for an Air Force flight test unit.
• Cameron Jones, 35, is a major in the US Air Force. He 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 US Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California and the US Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Jones is a 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 US 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 US Naval Academy and master's degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the National Test Pilot School. She is also a US 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 was formerly a lieutenant in the US 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. Muller's 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, is a lieutenant commander in the US Navy. She is from Goshen, Kentucky, and holds a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering and a master's in bioastronautics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. A US 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 US Naval Test Pilot School, Spies 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.

Ascans

NASA's 2025 astronaut class poses with a sculpture of the space agency's "worm" logo in the lobby of the Teague Auditorium at Johnson Space Center in Houston. From left: Ben Bailey, Cameron Jones, Katherine Spies, Anna Menon, Erin Overcash, Adam Fuhrmann, Lauren Edgar, Yuri Kubo, Rebecca Lawler, and Imelda Muller. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel

They will next undergo lessons in orbital mechanics, basic spacecraft systems, spacewalking skills, robotics control, and other disciplines needed for spaceflight. Upon their graduation in 2028, they will become members of NASA's astronaut corps, which has 41 active members as of Monday.

"Now I recognize that these guys are capable of pulling out a can of whoop ass, but I would humbly suggest next time, maybe we go with a different name than 'ascan' [pronounced 'ass-can,' short for astronaut candidate], like the collective branding can come up with something suitable to the occasion," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said at the event.

Given plans to retire the International Space Station in 2030, the new ascans may be too late to visit that complex, but they could launch to commercial orbital platforms that are under early development today. They could also be sent on missions to land at the Moon's south pole, with the first Artemis lunar landing targeted for mid-2027 at the earliest.

With the addition of the new class, NASA has recruited 370 people to train to be astronauts in its more than 60-year history.

The new astronaut candidates qualified for selection by being US citizens capable of passing a physical for long-duration spaceflight. They had to have at least a master's degree from an accredited institution in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field or a medical degree, with at least three years of related work experience, or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft.