NASA’s 2025 Astronaut Class Breaks Historic Barrier With Women in the Majority

For the first time in more than six decades of U.S. human spaceflight, NASA has introduced an astronaut candidate class in which women outnumber men. The 2025 class , the agency’s first new group in four years , includes ten people; six women and four men drawn from a pool of over 8,000 applicants across the country. 

They bring backgrounds spanning military aviation, Mars rover science, biomedical engineering, commercial spaceflight and hurricane-hunter test piloting.

Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy welcomed the group at Johnson Space Center in Houston, saying, “I’m honored to welcome the next generation of American explorers to our agency! More than 8,000 people applied , scientists, pilots, engineers, dreamers from every corner of this nation. 

"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. Together, we’ll unlock the Golden Age of exploration.”

The new class begins two years of training that covers spacewalking, robotics, spacecraft systems, Russian language, survival in land and water, geology, and simulated spacewalks while flying high-performance jets. After graduation, they become eligible for assignments to the International Space Station, Artemis missions to the Moon and, eventually, the first human flights to Mars. As Duffy added, “No pressure, NASA. We have some work to do.”

Among the women selected is Anna Menon, a biomedical engineer from Houston who already flew to orbit on SpaceX’s 2024 Polaris Dawn mission, the first commercial spacewalk and a record-setting female altitude flight.

“I’ll be damned if the Chinese beat NASA or beat America back to the moon,” Duffy said at the ceremony. “We’re going to win. We love challenges. We love competition.” His remarks underscored how NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to sustain a human presence on the lunar surface and apply those lessons to Mars, is also part of an international race.

The roster reflects a cross-section of U.S. expertise. Ben Bailey, an Army helicopter pilot with more than 2,000 flight hours, and Cameron Jones, an Air Force F-22 pilot, join fellow test pilots Rebecca Lawler, a former NOAA hurricane hunter, and Katherine Spies, a Marine Corps attack helicopter veteran. 

The class also includes Lauren Edgar, a geologist who spent 17 years on Mars rover missions; Adam Fuhrmann, an Air Force flight test engineer with 400 combat hours; Yuri Kubo, a former SpaceX launch director; Imelda Muller, a Navy undersea medical officer turned anesthesiologist; and Erin Overcash, a Navy test pilot and former Olympic rugby player.

Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA Johnson, summed up the moment: “Today, our mission propels us even further as we prepare for our next giant leap with NASA’s newest astronaut candidate class. Representing America’s best and brightest, this astronaut candidate class will usher in the Golden Age of innovation and exploration as we push toward the Moon and Mars.”

With these ten additions, NASA has now selected 370 astronaut candidates since the original Mercury Seven in 1959. This 2025 class marks a concrete shift in representation and a clear signal of the agency’s intent to field a more diverse crew for the coming era of lunar and Mars exploration.