NASA’s 2025 astronaut class (left to right): Ben Bailey, Rebecca Lawler, Cameron Jones, Anna Menon, Katherine Spies, Lauren Edgar, Adam Fuhrmann, Erin Overcash, Imelda Muller and Yuri Kubo.Josh Valcarcel – NASA – JSC
NASA on Monday introduced 10 new astronauts, four men and six women selected from more than 8,000 applicants, to begin training for future flights to the International Space Station, the moon and, eventually, Mars.
“One of these 10 could actually be one of the first Americans to put their boots on the Mars surface, which is very, very cool,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, also NASA’s acting administrator, said in welcoming remarks.
“No pressure, NASA, we have some work to do,” he said.
Meet the astronauts
This is NASA’s first astronaut class with more women than men. It includes six pilots with experience in high-performance aircraft, a biomedical engineer, an anesthesiologist, a geologist and a former SpaceX launch director.
Among the new astronaut candidates is 39-year-old Anna Menon, a mother of two who flew to orbit in 2024 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon as a private astronaut on a commercial, non-NASA flight.
“I am so thrilled to be back here with the NASA family,” Menon said. “As more and more people venture into space … we have this awesome opportunity to learn a tremendous amount to help support those astronauts … and help keep them healthy and safe. So it’s an exciting time to be here.”
Menon worked for NASA for seven years as a biomedical researcher and flight controller before joining SpaceX in 2018. She served as a senior engineer and was later selected as the onboard medical officer during the commercial Polaris Dawn mission, chartered by billionaire Jared Isaacman.
NASA astronaut candidate Anna Menon, veteran of a commercial flight to low-Earth orbit in 2024 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon.Josh Valcarcel – NASA – JSC
She married her husband, Anil, in 2016 while both were working for NASA. A former Air Force flight surgeon, Anil Menon joined SpaceX as its first medical officer in 2018. He joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2021 and is now assigned to a long-duration space station crew scheduled for launch aboard a Russian Soyuz next summer.
Anna and Anil Menon are among several couples who served in the astronaut corps at the same time. But only one couple ever flew in orbit together — shuttle astronauts Mark Lee and Jan Davis in 1992.
The other members of the 2025 astronaut class are:
- Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Ben Bailey, 38, a graduate of the Naval Test Pilot School with more than 2,000 hours flying more than 30 different aircraft, including recent work with UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47F Chinook helicopters.
- Lauren Edgar, 40, who holds a Ph.D. in geology from the California Institute of Technology, with experience supporting NASA’s Mars exploration rovers and, more recently, serving as a deputy principal investigator with NASA’s Artemis 3 moon landing mission.
- Air Force Maj. Adam Fuhrmann, 35, an Air Force Test Pilot School graduate with more than 2,100 hours flying F-16 and F-35 jets. He holds a master’s degree in flight test engineering.
- Air Force Maj. Cameron Jones, 35, another graduate of Air Force Test Pilot School as well as the Air Force Weapons School with more than 1,600 hours flying high-performance aircraft, spending most of his time flying the F-22 Raptor.
- Yuri Kubo, 40, a former SpaceX launch director with a master’s in electrical and computer engineering who also competed in ultimate frisbee contests.
- Rebecca Lawler, 38, a former Navy P-3 Orion pilot and experimental test pilot with more than 2,800 hours of flight time, including stints flying a NOAA hurricane hunter aircraft. She was a Naval Academy graduate and was a test pilot for United Airlines at the time of her selection.
- Imelda Muller, 34, a former undersea medical officer for the Navy with a medical degree from the University of Vermont’s Robert Larner College of Medicine; she was completing her residency in anesthesia at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore at the time of her astronaut selection.
- Navy Lt. Cmdr. Erin Overcash, 34, a Naval Test Pilot School graduate and an experienced F/A-18 and F/A-18F Super Hornet pilot with 249 aircraft carrier landings. She also trained with the USA Rugby Women’s National Team.
- Katherine Spies, 43, a former Marine Corps AH-1 attack helicopter pilot and a graduate of the Naval Test Pilot School with more than 2,000 hours flying time. She was director of flight test engineering for Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. at the time of her astronaut selection.
The new astronaut candidates will spend two years training at the Johnson Space Center and around the world with partner space agencies before becoming eligible for flight assignments.
The International Space Station as photographed by a visiting space shuttle crew in 2010.NASA
Astronauts join space race in uncertain times
The new astronauts are joining NASA‘s ranks at a time of great uncertainty given the Trump administration’s budget cuts, plans to retire the ISS at the end of the decade and challenges faced by the agency’s Artemis moon program.
Under the Trump administration’s planned budget cuts, future NASA crew rotation flights have been extended from six months to eight, reducing the total number of flights through the end of the program. In addition, crew sizes are expected to be reduced.
It’s not clear how many of the new astronauts might be able to fly to the ISS before it’s retired or how many might eventually walk on the moon. Whether NASA can get there before the Chinese, who are targeting the end of the decade for their own moon landing mission, is also uncertain.
An artist’s impression of a SpaceX lander on the surface of the moon.SpaceX/NASA
But Duffy assured the new astronaut candidates that NASA will, in fact, beat China back to the moon.
“Some are challenging our leadership in space, say, like the Chinese,” he said. “And I’ll just tell you this: I’ll be damned if the Chinese beat NASA or beat America back to the moon. We are going to win … the second space race back to the moon, with all of you participating in that great effort.”
As for flights to Mars, which the Trump administration supports, flights are not yet on the drawing board, and most experts say no such NASA mission is likely to launch within the next decade and probably longer.
