NASA 2025 Astronaut Class Includes Polaris Dawn Spaceflight Veteran

NASA announced its 2025 astronaut class consisting of 10 candidates, including Anna Menon, who is notable for being the first NASA astronaut to have orbited Earth before joining the agency. Menon, a biomedical engineer and former SpaceX engineer, flew on the Polaris Dawn mission in 2024, where she served as the medical officer and helped set the female flight altitude record. This class is the first to have more women than men and includes individuals from diverse backgrounds such as the military, private space industry, and commercial aviation. The selection highlights NASA's evolving approach to astronaut recruitment, incorporating private spaceflight experience alongside traditional military and research credentials. These candidates will undergo approximately two years of training to prepare for missions to the International Space Station, the Moon under the Artemis program, and eventually Mars. Leadership emphasized the importance of the new class in advancing human space exploration and sustaining long-duration missions beyond Earth orbit.