The American space agency NASA has presented ten new candidate astronauts. They have been selected to be trained for future missions. It concerns six men and four women between the ages of 32 and 45.
It is the first time since 2017 that new trainee astronauts are being introduced.
“Today, we welcome ten new explorers, ten members of the Artemis generation, the class of 2021,” NASA CEO Bill Nelson said at a meeting in Houston.
With the so-called Artemis mission, NASA wants to bring astronauts to the moon again around 2024, including a woman for the first time. However, the mission has already been delayed several times. By now, it seems that the first astronauts will set foot on the moon in 2026 at the earliest.
The ten candidates were chosen from more than 12,000 applicants, NASA reports. They will first start a training period of two years in January before participating in missions.