September 24, 2025
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.
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, introducing the new class of NASA candidates Monday. The group will complete a two-year training program before joining NASA’s active astronaut corps and becoming eligible for future space missions.
Why It Matters: The new class of NASA astronaut candidates could one day head to the moon or Mars. For the first time, women outnumber men in the class, which includes six women and four men chosen from more than 8,000 applicants. One of them, Anna Menon, is also the first candidate with prior spaceflight experience, having flown in low Earth orbit.
- Ben Bailey, 38, from Charlottesville, Virginia
- Lauren Edgar, 40, from Sammamish, Washington
- Adam Fuhrmann, 35, from Leesburg, Virginia
- Cameron Jones, 35, from Savanna, Illinois
- Yuri Kubo, 40, from Columbus, Indiana
- Rebecca Lawler, 38, from Little Elm, Texas
- Anna Menon, 39, from Houston, Texas
- Imelda Muller, 34, from Copake Falls, New York
- Erin Overcash, 34, from Goshen, Kentucky
- Katherine Spies, 43, from San Diego, California
Cameron Jones, one of the new astronaut candidates, grew up in the same town as former astronaut Dale Gardner. He said that seeing Gardner’s picture in his school’s trophy case inspired his own path: “That kind of gave me the thought: Even someone from a small town could go out and do something like this.” This is NASA’s first astronaut class since 2021, bringing the total number of candidates selected since 1959 to 370.
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by Stephanie Wagner, based in Florida
