After two years of rigorous training, 10 Americans officially became astronauts on Tuesday and could be sent to the moon in the future by NASA, which immediately announced the opening of applications for their next promotion.
Two UAE nationals who trained with them also officially graduated on Tuesday at a ceremony in Houston, Texas.
Members of the new “The Flies” campaign can now be used as part of the Artemis missions to travel to the International Space Station (ISS), but also to the moon. And why not head towards Mars one day.
“You are here because you are extraordinary,” Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator, said on stage.
“Their missions will transform our understanding of Earth and space,” he added, thanking them for agreeing to “risk their lives” by one day sitting on the top of a rocket.
The ten new astronauts are engineers, scientists, pilots and even doctors and come from both the military and civilian world. You were selected from more than 12,000 candidates in 2021.
Since then, they have undergone intensive training: simulations of spacewalks in suits in a giant swimming pool, piloting supersonic aircraft, cold survival courses, lessons in Russian and learning how the ISS or the Orion lunar capsule works.
New astronaut Chris Birch shared some memories from that time on the microphone. Like the time the group found itself without food after a week of survival training in a remote region of Alabama and shared “one last bag of M&Ms,” peanut candy.
She thanked the instructors who patiently answered “our endless list of 'what if' questions about our spacesuits.”
“We’re ready,” she insisted.
“Artemis Generation”
At the same time, NASA announced Tuesday that it is opening applications to recruit its next class. The criteria: You must be American, have a master's degree in a science, technology or engineering discipline and have at least three years of professional experience. Or be a doctor or a pilot.
The application deadline ends on April 2nd.
The American space agency now has 48 active, mission-capable astronauts.
And the needs are growing.
“There are many more opportunities for activities in space today than in the '60s and '70s,” remarked during the ceremony a distinguished guest: Harrison Schmitt, astronaut of the Apollo 17 mission who walked on the moon.
“The moon is calling us again, and for more reasons than in the past,” he said, emphasizing the need to establish international rules for the management of lunar resources to avoid conflict on the planet.
He also recalled that astronauts participating in future Artemis missions will need to help determine whether humans can adapt to very low gravity in the long term – “important information” for future Mars missions.
NASA's Artemis program aims to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon and make it a stopover on the way to Mars.
NASA calls its new recruits the “Artemis Generation.”
Reid Wiseman, commander of the Artemis 2 mission, which is scheduled to launch in September 2025, also congratulated the new astronauts on Tuesday in Houston. Its mission, the program's first manned mission, will orbit the moon without landing there.
Before following in his footsteps, many of the new astronauts will likely first pass through the ISS. You can get there aboard SpaceX capsules currently in service, or perhaps soon aboard Boeing (if a test flight planned for April is successful).
“Congratulations to the new class of NASA astronauts!” SpaceX wrote on social media. “We can’t wait to have you flying soon!”