NASA Astronaut Group 23 (nicknamed The Flies) was announced on December 6, 2021, with the class reporting for duty some time in 2022. Twelve astronaut candidates were selected, including seven men and five women.

History

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

announced the creation of this

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

group in February 2020 and accepted applications for astronaut hires during the month of March 2020. For this class, the educational requirements increased to be at minimum a master's degree in a

STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

field (engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science, or mathematics) from an accredited institution; in classes prior to this, a bachelor's degree was all that was required. Additionally, a 2-hour online assessment was required for the first time. Over 12,000 applications were received by NASA, coming from all 50 states plus the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and four U.S. territories. The Group 23 astronaut candidates were originally planned to arrive at the

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

for training in the summer of 2021, and when their approximately two-year-long training program is complete, they become available for future missions to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

aboard NASA or commercial crew vehicles, the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

via the

Artemis program The Artemis program is a robotic and human Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with three partner agencies: European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration ...

, and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

. However, due to complications with interviewing potential applicants in person due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

restrictions at JSC, the announcement of the new class has been pushed back twice: * In August 2020, the agency revised the timetable, pushing the final announcement date from summer to late 2021. As of the August 2020 revision, several rounds of interviews were to have been conducted in Houston between February and September 2021, with the announcement of the Class of 2021 in October or November and their arrival at JSC for training in December. * In March 2021, the agency again revised the timetable: on-site interviews will be scheduled for summer 2021, with the new class announcement in late 2021 and the new class reporting in 2022. Two Emirati candidates,

Nora Al Matrooshi Nora Al Matrooshi ( ar, نورا المطروشي; born 1993 in the Emirate of Sharjah) is an Emirati engineer and astronaut. In April 2021, she was seleted to train with the NASA Astronaut Group 23 of astronauts to work as an international missio ...

and Mohammad Al Mulla, selected by the MBRSC, will take part in training as international partner astronauts.

Hazza Al Mansouri Hazza Al Mansouri ( ar, هَزَّاع ٱلْمَنْصُوْرِي, Hazzāʿ Al-Manṣūrī, surname also spelled "Al Mansoori", full name Hazzaa Ali Abdan Khalfan Al Mansoori () is an Emirati astronaut and the first person from the United Ara ...

– who already went to space on board

Soyuz MS-15 Soyuz MS-15 was a Soyuz spaceflight launched on 25 September 2019, transporting two members of the Expedition 61 crew and a short duration visiting crew member to the International Space Station. Soyuz MS-15 was the 143rd flight of a Soyuz spac ...

– and candidate

Sultan Al Neyadi Sultan Al Neyadi ( ar, سلطان النيادي; born May 23, 1981) is an Emirati astronaut and one of the first two astronauts from the United Arab Emirates, along with Hazza Al Mansouri. Childhood and education Sultan Al Neyadi was born in U ...

were already training at NASA since before the 23rd group was chosen, but only Nora and Mohammad are considered part of the group 23.

Group members

The list: * Nichole Ayers: Air Force Fighter Pilot * Marcos Berríos: Air Force Helicopter Test Pilot * Christina Birch: Bioengineer, Team USA Track Cyclist * Deniz Burnham: Drilling Engineer *

Luke Delaney Luke Delaney (born 24 June 1989) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club and St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was drafted with rookie draft pick n ...

: NASA Langley Research Pilot * Andre Douglas: Space Systems Engineer * Jack Hathaway: Navy Test Pilot *

Anil Menon Anil Menon is an Indian writer of speculative fiction, as well as a computer scientist with a Ph.D. from Syracuse University, who has authored research papers and edited books on Evolutionary Algorithms. His research addressed the mathematic ...

: Medical Director,

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

* Christopher Williams: Medical Physicist *

Jessica Wittner Jessica Wittner (born 1983) is a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy and NASA astronaut candidate. Life Wittner is a native of California with a distinguished career serving on active duty as a naval aviator and test pilot. As a tee ...

: Navy Test Pilot, Research Engineer Two candidate astronauts from the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

are training as part of the group 23: *

: Mechanical Engineer * Mohammad Al Mulla: Helicopter Pilot

References

Lists of astronauts NASA Astronaut Corps {{NASA-stub

History

Group members

See also

References