NASA has introduced its newest class of astronauts, selecting 10 candidates from more than 8,000 applicants in a process described as among the most competitive in the agency’s history. The group, announced at Johnson Space Center in Houston, includes six women and four men, marking the first time women have outnumbered men in a NASA astronaut class.⁠ ⁠ The 2025 astronaut candidates, known as ASCANs, represent NASA’s 24th class since the original Mercury Seven in 1959. Their backgrounds range from military test pilots to engineers, geologists, and medical doctors. Among them is Anna Menon, a biomedical engineer and former SpaceX employee who already has flown to space on the 2024 Polaris Dawn mission, where she helped achieve the first commercial spacewalk.⁠ ⁠ Training for the group began in mid-September and will last two years. Their curriculum covers survival training, robotics, geology, Russian language, space medicine, simulated spacewalks, and piloting high-performance jets. They...