NASA on Monday presented its ten new astronauts in training, including a firefighter turned professor at Harvard, a former cyclist for the American team, and a fighter pilot.
The class, selected from more than 12,000 applicants, will begin their two-year training in January at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
"We're going back to the moon, and we're going to Mars, and today we're welcoming 10 new explorers,"
said Bill Nelson, head of NASA.
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The ten lucky ones, aged 32 to 45, will train for spacewalks, develop robotics skills, learn to operate and maintain the International Space Station (ISS) but also to speak Russian, in order to communicate with their counterparts. Once their training is complete, they will be assigned to missions to the ISS, or further into space, notably as part of NASA's planned return to the Moon later in the decade, with the Artemis mission.
This very attractive training program was open to Americans who passed an online test and had a master's degree in a field related to science, technology, engineering or mathematics - a new criterion.
A medical degree or a test pilot program was also accepted.
Child's dream
“I was interested in the career of an astronaut from a young age,”
said Jessica Wittner, 38, a lieutenant commander in the US Navy who is a test pilot and aerospace engineer.
"I was that little girl who played with rockets in the park and loved science lessons."
Other future astronauts include Nichole Ayers, one of the only women to fly an F-22 fighter jet, or Christopher Williams, 38-year-old professor of medical physics at prestigious Harvard University.
US Air Force lieutenant colonel Anil Menon, 45, was previously SpaceX's first flight medic.
Born to parents from India and Ukraine, he participated in the relief teams sent after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 or that of 2015 in Nepal.
Another member of the class, Christina Birch, 35, holds degrees in mathematics, biochemistry, molecular chemistry, as well as a doctorate in biological engineering from the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
She gave up a career as a researcher to join the US track cycling team, notably qualifying for the Olympics.
NASA's previous class graduated in 2017. Two of its members, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron, are currently aboard the ISS.