2021 NASA Astronaut Candidate Class

NASA announced its 2021 astronaut candidate class on Dec. 6, 2021. The 10 candidates, announced in an event at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are: U.S. Air Force Maj. Nichole Ayers, Christopher Williams, U.S. Marine Corp Maj. (Ret.) Luke Delaney, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jessica Wittner, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Anil Menon, U.S. Air Force Maj. Marcos Berríos, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jack Hathaway, Christina Birch, U.S. Navy Lt. Deniz Burnham, and Andre Douglas.

NASA’s new astronaut candidates will begin about two years of training in January 2022, after which they could be assigned to missions performing research on the International Space Station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, and launching on Artemis missions to the Moon on NASA’s new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.