Watch NASA announce its next astronaut class in this webcast replay

Editor's note: NASA on Monday announced the 10 newest astronauts to join its space corps in a ceremony at Ellington Field in Houston near NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. You can watch a replay of the announcement above. Our full story on the announcement will be posted shortly. 

In the meantime, NASA's new astronaut class includes four women and six men. They are: 

  • Nichole Ayers, 32, major, U.S. Air Force, of Colorado;
  • Marcos Berríos, 37, major, U.S. Air Forceof  Guaynabo, Puerto Rico;
  • Christina Birch, 35, biochemist, of Gilbert, Arizona; 
  • Deniz Burnham, 36, lieutenant, U.S. Navy, of Wasilla, Alaska;
  • Luke Delaney, 42, major, retired, U.S. Marine Corps, of Debary, Florida;
  • Andre Douglas, 35, mechanical/electrical/computer engineer, of Virginia;
  • Jack Hathaway, 39, commander, U.S. Navy, of Connecticut;
  • Anil Menon, 45, lieutenant colonel, U.S. Air Force, of Minneapolis, Minnesota;
  • Christopher Williams, 38, physicist, of Potomac, Maryland;
  • Jessica Wittner, 38, lieutenant commander, U.S. Navy, of California.

NASA announced its 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class on Dec. 6, 2021. The 10 candidates, pictured here at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are: U.S. Air Force Maj. Nichole Ayers, Christopher Williams, U.S. Marine Corps Maj. (retired.) Luke Delaney, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jessica Wittner, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Anil Menon, U.S. Air Force Maj. Marcos Berríos, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jack Hathaway, Christina Birch, U.S. Navy Lt. Deniz Burnham, and Andre Douglas. (Image credit: NASA)

NASA is ready to announce its next batch of astronaut candidates, and you can watch the event live.

The agency will announce the 2021 astronaut class today (Nov. 6) at 12:30 p.m. EST (0530 GMT). The event will run live on NASA Television, NASA social media channels, the NASA app and also here at Space.com.

More than 12,000 U.S. citizens applied in 2020 to become an astronaut of the "Artemis Generation", or what NASA has termed the astronauts expected to participate in the Artemis program for moon missions and the planned lunar Gateway space station. Moonbound astronauts will fly on the Orion spacecraft and Deep Space Launch system that will have their first uncrewed moon mission together no earlier than February 2022.

The first Artemis crewed mission (in lunar orbit) is expected in 2024 and the first landing mission in 2025. Existing agency astronauts termed the "Artemis Team" will get those first seats, though, along with an unidentified Canadian who will fly on the 2024 Artemis II orbital mission under an agreement with the Canadian Space Agency.

Related: How To Become An Astronaut

The 2021 astronaut class could be among the crew members of Artemis moon missions, NASA says. (Image credit: NASA)

While the new class would be eligible for Artemis assignments eventually, it's unclear if they will reach the International Space Station — even though NASA's announcement says the new astronaut candidates would qualify for full astronaut status and flight assignment to the orbiting complex after two years of training. 

Since the new class would receive flight assignments no earlier than 2024, that pegs the timing in the same year as the current retirement date for the ISS. Even after being assigned to a flight, the astronauts' mission training would take another couple of years — meaning the earliest the new class could get to the orbiting complex would be around 2026. 

That said, NASA hopes to extend the ISS retirement date to 2028 or even 2030, and just revealed a bunch of commercial space station designs that the 2021 class may one day visit in the coming decade or so.

Related: How NASA's Artemis moon landing with astronauts works

The new astronaut candidates will report to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston in January 2022, where they will begin their two-year qualification cycle in aspects such as the Russian language, spacewalking skills, teamwork in isolated conditions, piloting high-performance aircraft and learning spacecraft systems.

NASA's last astronaut class of 2017, nicknamed the Turtles, included 12 U.S. individuals split pretty evenly among male and female candidates; several international astronaut candidates also joined their respective country's corps at that time. 

The graduation ceremony for the Turtles took place in January 2020, minus NASA astronaut candidate Robb Kulin, who resigned partway through the training.

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Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace