NASA has unveiled its newest class of 10 astronaut candidates, marking a historic milestone with women comprising the majority of the group for the first time. Among the selected candidates is Lauren Edgar, a 40-year-old geologist from Sammamish, Washington, who brings extensive space research experience to the program.
The announcement was made during a ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy revealed that these 10 individuals were chosen from an impressive pool of over 8,000 applicants. Duffy emphasized that these selections represent the finest candidates in terms of skills, personality, and appearance, noting that one of them could potentially become the first American to step foot on Mars.
Edgar, who was born in Washington, D.C., but considers Sammamish her hometown, is a Skyline High School graduate who went on to earn her bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in geology from Caltech. Her career achievements include leading USGS’ TARGET training program and supporting multiple Mars missions. She has also served as deputy principal investigator on the Artemis 3 Geology Team.
During the ceremony, Edgar shared her enthusiasm about joining NASA officially and revealed her unique habit of performing handstands at various locations around the world, from mountain peaks to glaciers and the Grand Canyon – a practice stemming from her gymnastics background.
This class is also noteworthy for including Anna Menon, who previously set a female altitude record of 870.35 miles during the private Polaris Dawn mission and participated in the first commercial spacewalk. The other candidates bring diverse backgrounds in military aviation, medicine, and aerospace engineering.
The complete roster includes military test pilots Ben Bailey, Adam Fuhrmann, Cameron Jones, and Katherine Spies; former SpaceX executives Yuri Kubo and Anna Menon; medical professionals Imelda Muller and Rebecca Lawler; and Navy officer Erin Overcash, who has experience with the USA Rugby Women’s National Team.
These selections bring NASA’s total astronaut candidate count to 370 since the original Mercury Seven in 1959. The new candidates will undergo extensive training in preparation for potential lunar missions under NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon with Artemis 2 scheduled for next year and a lunar landing planned for mid-2027 with Artemis 3.
Addressing concerns about competition from China’s space program and questions about NASA’s timeline, Duffy expressed confidence in American leadership in space exploration. He emphasized NASA’s commitment to not only returning to the moon but establishing a permanent presence there as a stepping stone to Mars and beyond, asserting that NASA and America would prevail in what he called the “second space race” back to the moon.