One of these new NASA astronauts could be the first person to walk on Mars

The 10 new NASA astronaut candidates are already making history. The 2025 class includes the first person to join the body of astronauts who has already stolen in orbit. It is also the first class in history to include more women than men. To top it up, one of them could be the first to set foot on the red planet.

These candidates join the body of NASA astronauts at a time when human exploration of Mars is a key objective for the agency. The acting administrator, Sean Duffy, presented the class on Monday at the Johnson Space Center of NASA in Houston, reiterating the accent put by the agency on the maintenance of its leadership in space by pursuing a “daring exploration plan for the future”.

“One of these 10 could actually be one of the first Americans to put their boots on the surface of Mars, which is very, very cool,” said NASA acting administrator Sean Duffy during the ceremony, according to CBS News.

“No pressure, NASA, we have work to do,” he said. And my boy is an understatement.

Ready for March? Not even close

All current NASA astronauts could theoretically go to Mars, but this new class has the best shot. With their mandates that are just beginning, they are no longer likely to see NASA achieve this long -term ambitious goal. However, they will wait for a moment.

The NASA roadmap on the red planet includes a critical stand stop on the moon. Thanks to the “Moon to Mars” initiative, the agency plans to use Artemis missions as a springboard to send humans to Mars. In recent years, however, progress has stalled due to repeated delays in the Artemis mission.

Last week, the agency’s security consulting panel warned that the completion of the Human Aatmage System (HLS) of SpaceX (HLS) – Lunar Lander for the Artemis 3 mission could be “years of delay”. Artemis 3, which will send American astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, is expected to be launched by mid-2027. But now the timing is troubled.

Before Artemis 3, NASA must still attack Artemis 2, in which four astronauts will get up in a 10 -day trip to the moon. The agency has already delayed this mission several times and now provides for the launch in April 2026.

All this to say that NASA faces a very long path to Mars. Although the agency says it could send astronauts to the red planet in the 2030s, it is more likely to take decades. However, Duffy hopes that this next generation of astronauts will help inaugurate a “golden age” of spatial exploration.

A class of astronauts like no other

The 24th NASA astronaut class will spend the next two years in basic training before embarking on their first missions. The candidates will put their various skills sets to the test – some supporting the previous experience of NASA to advance towards the next stage of their career.

The class includes Anna Menon, a former biomedical flight controller in Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center; Lauren Edgar, former assistant researcher of the Geology team of Artemis 3; And Yuri Kubo, former cooperative student at Johnson. Menon is the first astronaut candidate with previous experience on space flights, after having traveled the Mission Polaris Dawn of SpaceX in 2024.

The 10 candidates have advanced scientific expertise, with history of engineering, neuroscience, geology and other disciplines. Their skills will certainly be useful when researching the international space station, but it is not yet clear for other flight assignments for which they will be exploited. During the event on Monday, NASA officials expressed hope that the new astronauts could embark on subsequent artemis missions and, of course, go to Mars, but for the moment, their future remains uncertain.