NASA Revealing New Astronaut Class This Week
About 18,300 people applied more than a year ago, and the agency is announcing the new group in a live broadcast June 7 from the Johnson Space Center.
NASA will announce its new astronaut class June 7 in a live broadcast from the Johnson Space Center. More than 18,300 people applied to join this class more than a year ago, far above the previous record of 8,000 applicants in 1978. U.S. citizens from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, Guam, and American Samoa applied to join NASA's astronaut corps.
The requirements to apply were U.S. citizenship, a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution in a science, technology, engineering, or math field, and at least three years of related experience or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft.
The announcement is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. EDT with acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot, JSC Director Ellen Ochoa, and Flight Operations Director Brian Kelly on stage. The event will be broadcast live on NASA Television and on the agency's website.
The new class members will go through two years of training before assignment to missions performing research on the International Space Station, launching on spacecraft made by commercial companies, or launching on deep-space missions on NASA's new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket. They will report to the Johnson Space Center n in August to begin their training on spacecraft systems, spacewalking skills, teamwork, the Russian language, and other necessary skills, according to the agency's announcement.