NASA’s 10 new astronaut candidates are already making history. The 2025 class includes the first person to join the astronaut corps who has previously flown to orbit. It’s also the first class in history to include more women than men. To top things off, one of them could be the first to set foot on the Red Planet.
These candidates are joining NASA’s astronaut corps at a time when human exploration of Mars is a key objective for the agency. Acting Administrator Sean Duffy introduced the class on Monday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, reiterating the agency’s focus on maintaining its leadership in space by pursuing a “bold exploration plan for the future.”
“One of these 10 could actually be one of the first Americans to put their boots on the Mars surface, which is very, very cool,” acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy said during the ceremony, according to CBS News.
“No pressure, NASA, we have some work to do,” he said. And boy, is that an understatement.
Ready for Mars? Not even close
Any of NASA’s current astronauts could theoretically go to Mars, but this new class has the best shot. With their tenures just beginning, they’re most likely to see NASA reach this ambitious, long-term goal. Still, they’ll be waiting a while.
NASA’s roadmap to the Red Planet includes a critical pit stop at the Moon. Through the “Moon to Mars” initiative, the agency plans to use the Artemis missions as stepping stones toward sending humans to Mars. In recent years, however, progress has stalled due to repeated Artemis mission delays.
Just last week, the agency’s safety advisory panel warned that completion of SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS)—the lunar lander for the Artemis 3 mission—could be “years late.” Artemis 3, which will return American astronauts to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, is slated to launch by mid-2027. But now, the timing is murky.
Before Artemis 3, NASA still has to tackle Artemis 2, wherein four astronauts will embark on a 10-day trip around the Moon. The agency has already delayed this mission multiple times and now expects to launch in April 2026.
All this to say that NASA faces a really long road to Mars. Though the agency claims it could send astronauts to the Red Planet as early as the 2030s, it’s more likely to take decades. Still, Duffy hopes this next generation of astronauts will help usher in a “Golden Age” of space exploration.
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