Lawler, 38, most recently was a test pilot for United Airlines, but she was formerly a lieutenant commander in the Navy and logged more than 2,800 hours in more than 45 different aircraft. She earned her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy and is a U.S. Naval Test Pilot School graduate. She’s got master’s degrees in space systems engineering and flight test engineering and also flew with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a hurricane hunter and flew a P-3 Orion during NASA’s Operation IceBridge.<\/p>\n
Menon, 39, is from Houston and earned her bachelor\u2019s degree from TCU with a double major in mathematics and Spanish. She also holds a master\u2019s in biomedical engineering from Duke University. Menon previously worked in the Mission Control Center at NASA Johnson, supporting medical hardware and software aboard the International Space Station. In 2024, Menon flew to space as a mission specialist and medical officer aboard SpaceX\u2019s Polaris Dawn<\/a>. The mission saw a new female altitude record, the first commercial spacewalk, and the completion of approximately 40 research experiments. At the time of her selection, Menon was a senior engineer at SpaceX.<\/p>\n The six women and four men in the candidate class will undergo two years of training before becoming eligible for spaceflight.<\/p>\n Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said one of them could become one of the first to step on Mars. He also stressed that the U.S. will win this second race to land astronauts on the moon.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are America’s best and brightest, and we’re going to need America’s best and brightest because we have a bold exploration plan for the future,” Duffy said at Monday’s ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston. \u201cSome are challenging our leadership in space, say like the Chinese \u2026 We are going to win.”<\/p>\n This is NASA’s 24th astronaut class since the original Mercury Seven made their debut in 1959. The previous class was in 2021.<\/p>\n Only 370 people have been selected by NASA as astronauts, making it an extraordinarily small and elite group composed mostly of men. The latest additions will join 41 active U.S. astronauts currently serving in the corps.<\/p>\n NASA’s flight operations director Norm Knight said competition was stiff and called the newcomers \u201cdistinguished\u201d and \u201cexceptional.” They include several military pilots, a former SpaceX launch director and a medical doctor.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tNASA<\/p>\n \t\t\tNASA<\/p>\n NASA announced its 2025 Astronaut Candidate Class on Sept. 22, 2025. The 10 candidates, pictured here at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston are: U.S. Army CW3 Ben Bailey, U.S. Air Force Maj. Cameron Jones, Katherine Spies, Anna Menon, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Erin Overcash, U.S. Air Force Maj. Adam Fuhrmann, Dr. Lauren Edgar, Yuri Kubo, Rebecca Lawler, and Dr. Imelda Muller.<\/p>\n Astronaut candidates for 2025<\/p>\n The 2025 astronaut candidates are:<\/p>\n Ben Bailey<\/a><\/strong>, 38, chief warrant officer 3, U.S. Army, was born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia and is completing a master\u2019s in systems engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Bailey is a U.S. Naval Test Pilot School graduate with more than 2,000 flight hours in more than 30 different rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. At the time of his selection, Bailey was responsible for the developmental testing of emerging technologies aboard Army rotary wing aircraft, specializing in the UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47F Chinook.<\/p>\n Lauren Edgar<\/a><\/strong>, 40, considers Sammamish, Washington, her hometown. She earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in Earth sciences from Dartmouth College, and her master\u2019s and doctorate in geology from the California Institute of Technology. Edgar has served as the deputy principal investigator for the Artemis III Geology Team. In this role, she helped define lunar science goals, geology activities NASA astronauts will conduct, and science operations for NASA\u2019s return to the Moon. She also spent more than 17 years supporting Mars exploration rovers. She was working at the U.S. Geological Survey at the time of her selection.<\/p>\n Adam Fuhrmann<\/a><\/strong>, 35, major, U.S. Air Force, is from Leesburg, Virginia, and has accumulated more than 2,100 flight hours in 27 aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35. He holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and master\u2019s degrees in flight test engineering and systems engineering from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and Purdue University, respectively. He has deployed in support of Operations Freedom\u2019s Sentinel and Resolute Support, logging 400 combat hours. At the time of his selection, Fuhrmann served as the director of operations for an Air Force flight test unit.<\/p>\n Cameron Jones<\/a><\/strong>, 35, major, U.S. Air Force, is a native of Savanna, Illinois. He holds bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California and the U.S. Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. He\u2019s an experienced test pilot with more than 1,600 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft, including 150 combat hours. The majority of his flight time is in the F-22 Raptor. At the time of his selection, Jones was an Air Force Academic Fellow at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.<\/p>\n Yuri Kubo<\/a><\/strong>, 40, is a native of Columbus, Indiana. He earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in electrical engineering and a master\u2019s in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University. He spent 12 years working across various teams at SpaceX, including as launch director for Falcon 9 rocket launches, director of avionics for the Starshield program, and director of Ground Segment. Earlier in his career, Kubo was a co-op student at NASA Johnson, where he completed multiple tours supporting the Orion spacecraft, the International Space Station, and the Space Shuttle Program. At the time of his selection, Kubo was the senior vice president of Engineering at Electric Hydrogen.<\/p>\n Rebecca Lawler<\/a><\/strong>, 38, is a native of Little Elm, Texas, and a former lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. She is a former Navy P-3 pilot and experimental test pilot with more than 2,800 flight hours in more than 45 aircraft. Lawler holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and master\u2019s degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the National Test Pilot School. She also is a U.S. Naval Test Pilot School graduate. Lawler also flew as a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane hunter and during NASA\u2019s Operation IceBridge. She was a test pilot for United Airlines at the time of selection.<\/p>\n Anna Menon<\/a><\/strong>, 39, is from Houston and earned her bachelor\u2019s degree from Texas Christian University with a double major in mathematics and Spanish. She also holds a master\u2019s in biomedical engineering from Duke University. Menon previously worked in the Mission Control Center at NASA Johnson, supporting medical hardware and software aboard the International Space Station. In 2024, Menon flew to space as a mission specialist and medical officer aboard SpaceX\u2019s Polaris Dawn. The mission saw a new female altitude record, the first commercial spacewalk, and the completion of approximately 40 research experiments. At the time of her selection, Menon was a senior engineer at SpaceX.<\/p>\n Imelda Muller<\/a><\/strong>, 34, considers Copake Falls, New York, her hometown. She formerly was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and served as an undersea medical officer after training at the Naval Undersea Medical Institute. Muller earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in behavioral neuroscience from Northeastern University and a medical degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine. Her experience includes providing medical support during Navy operational diving training at NASA\u2019s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. At the time of her selection, Muller was completing a residency in anesthesia at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.<\/p>\n![\"NASA](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/nasa-astronaut-candidates-2025.jpg\")
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