NASA has reopened the door to its astronaut corps, and anyone who wants through has until 11:59 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 3 to file. The agency announced the call on Nov. 7 in release 26-093, and it is open only to U.S. citizens. Selected candidates would begin training in late 2027.
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The class being recruited is meant for the Moon first. NASA says the people it picks will train for work on the lunar surface and for life beyond Earth.
The deadline is stated in NASA’s own announcement, which gives the cutoff as 11:59 p.m. EST on Dec. 3 and directs applicants to a federal application portal. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in the release that it is an extraordinary time to join the corps, adding that the people selected could walk on the Moon and live and work at the Moon Base. Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson put it more briefly: the window is open and the mission is waiting.
Degrees, flight hours and the medical screen
The base requirement is a master’s degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or computer science from an accredited institution. NASA lists several substitutes. Two years of doctoral work in those fields or mathematics counts, as does a medical degree such as an MD, DO or physician assistant credential. A nationally recognized Test Pilot School program also qualifies if finished by July 2027, though a candidate relying on it alone must also hold a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field. On top of the degree, applicants need at least three years of related professional experience after earning it.
Pilots have their own thresholds in the release. Jet pilots need 750 hours as pilot-in-command in high-performance aircraft. Other fixed-wing pilots need 1,500 total hours, including 750 as pilot-in-command, and rotary-wing pilots need 1,000 total hours with 300 as pilot-in-command. Physicians can count residency toward the experience rule, provided it is completed by July 2027. Everyone must pass NASA’s long-duration astronaut flight physical and show strong leadership, teamwork and communication skills. The release does not mention salary.
Competition from the 2024 round
The odds are steep. When NASA last opened applications in 2024, it received more than 8,000, and the agency chose ten candidates from that pool. NASA’s astronauts page repeats those figures and counts 370 people selected as astronaut candidates since the program began, a tally the new release also cites alongside 32 astronauts on the active roster today. The same page records the corps’ makeup since the 1960s: 303 men and 67 women among the 370, 226 from the military and 144 civilians, with 203 pilots and 167 non-pilots.
The 2025 class was announced on Sept. 22, 2025, at Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the release says those ten are nearly two years into training. That timeline matters for anyone applying now: the next class will not be named until late 2027, so the full path from application to flight eligibility is measured in years rather than months. The astronaut candidate overview describes the training program as running at Johnson Space Center, where NASA’s astronaut corps is based, though the release itself does not say where the incoming group will train.
Moon Base training and the Artemis horizon
NASA’s pitch is built around lunar work. The release says training will include spacewalking, lunar geology and high-performance aircraft operations, and that the agency plans increasingly difficult missions near the Moon’s South Pole under Artemis, with the aim of a lasting human presence there. It describes the Moon Base and the groundwork for the first crewed Mars missions as part of the same effort.
Spacewalk preparation draws on facilities at Johnson Space Center, including the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, one of the world’s largest indoor pools, which NASA says is used for mission planning, procedure development, hardware verification and astronaut training. Lunar geology and high-performance aircraft operations round out the syllabus. The pool is also where crews rehearse spacewalks, the first skill the release lists in its description of what the new class must learn.
Scott Tingle, the chief astronaut who chairs the Astronaut Selection Board, framed the offer as a chance to join a legacy of explorers who have pushed the boundaries of discovery. NASA describes the International Space Station as continuously crewed for a quarter century, the orbital backdrop against which this selection is happening. The agency’s astronauts page already lists the Artemis III crew, with Randy Bresnik as commander, Luca Parmitano as pilot, and Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas as mission specialists, a sign of how small each lunar crew is.
The open question is when the new candidates could actually fly. NASA’s release gives a selection date of late 2027 and says nothing about when candidates could first fly, so the first assignments of the incoming group remain unannounced. Media contacts for the call are George Alderman and Cheryl Warner at headquarters and Anna Schneider at Johnson Space Center, and the release points applicants to a dedicated astronaut-selection information page.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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