Out of approximately 6,000 applicants — the highest number of applicants in some time — NASA has finally chosen it’s newest selection of astronauts for the first time in nearly four years. There eight in total and four are women, NASA’s record.
The crew: Christina Hammock (Jacksonville, North Carolina), Nicole Aunapu Mann (Penngrove, California), Anne McClain of (Spokane, Washington) and Jessica Meir (Caribou, Maine). Oh yeah, and Josh Cassada, (White Bear Lake, Maine), Victor Glover (Pomona, California), Tyler Hague (Hoxie, Kansas), and Andrew Morgan (New Castle, Pennsylvania). Full biographies of the “astroclass” are on NASA’s website.
According to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, this new crew will embark upon the first human mission to an asteroid and will also take part in the first human mission to Mars, both of which will occur sometime within the following decade:
These new space explorers asked to join NASA because they know we’re doing big, bold things here — developing missions to go farther into space than ever before.
One of the most recent female astronauts, Eileen Collins, was selected more than twenty years ago.
(Image: Rob Gendler)
