A New Class of Astronauts is Here!

Tomorrow, December 6th at 9:30 a.m. PST, the 2021 astronaut class will be announced. That’s right, there will be a new set of NASA astronauts that will begin their training at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. Every four years, a new group of astronauts is selected by NASA. The group that will be announced tomorrow is NASA Astronaut Group 23. We don’t know their group nickname yet. The 2017 Astronaut Class was nicknamed “The Turtles” and the 2013 Astronaut Class was nicknamed “The 8 Balls”. 

2017 Astronaut Class

To apply for the 2021 Astronaut Class, you needed a minimum of a master’s degree in a STEM field and needed to complete a 2-hour online assessment. This was the first class where both of these were required to apply. Over 12,000 U.S. citizens applied in 2020 to become an astronaut. But NASA typically picks around 12 people. That’s a 0.1% acceptance rate!

This class of astronauts will be working on the Artemis program on moon missions and on the planned lunar space station called Gateway. Because of this, the 2021 class of astronauts are being dubbed the “Artemis Generation” and will be the first group to fly aboard the Orion spacecraft to go to the moon. The first Artemis crewed lunar orbit mission is expected to be in 2024 and the first landing mission is expected to be in 2025. However, these missions will most likely have astronauts from the 2017 Astronaut Class.

One thing that is unclear is whether or not the 2021 Astronaut Class will do any work with the ISS. It takes two years to complete astronaut training and it takes a long time for new astronauts to get their first assignments. In fact, some members of the 2017 Astronaut Class just got their first assignments a couple of months ago. This would put most of their first assignments in 2026. NASA is hoping to extend the retirement date of the ISS past 2028, but it is most likely that NASA will look at commercial companies to manage the ISS and build future space stations.

Render of Astronaut Working on Moon as part of Artemis Program

The 2021 Astronaut Class will report to JSC in January 2022, where they will begin their training. Some things they will learn and practice are the Russian language, spacewalking skills, teamwork in isolated conditions, piloting high-performance aircraft, and learning spacecraft systems. In a little over 2 years, we will see the next generation of astronauts. And who knows, maybe you will be apart of the 2029 Astronaut Class or the 2033 Astronaut Class, I guess we will just have to wait and find out.

Sources:

Howell, Elizabeth. “NASA Will Announce Its next Astronaut Class on Monday and You Can Watch It Live.” Space.com, Space, 5 Dec. 2021, https://www.space.com/nasa-astronaut-class-2021-announcement-webcast. 

“NASA Astronaut Group 21.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Oct. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Astronaut_Group_21. 

“NASA Astronaut Group 22.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Astronaut_Group_22. 

“NASA Astronaut Group 23.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Dec. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Astronaut_Group_23.