NASA Opens Applications for New Astronaut Class to Help Build Artemis Lunar Base

At a Kennedy Space Center air show on Saturday, NASA made an announcement aimed at anyone who has ever wanted to go to the moon: the agency is accepting applications for a new class of astronauts. The show, held at Cape Canaveral, Florida, was built around lunar exploration and advances in aviation and technology.

The last call for astronauts came two years ago. More than 8,000 people applied, and 10 made the final cut in September 2025. This time, the agency has a clear reason to want more. NASA has only 32 active astronauts, and it is trying to extend human presence beyond low-Earth orbit as quickly as it can. The Artemis II crew's lunar flyaround in April kicked off that lunar campaign.

Artemis III commander Randy Bresnik put the problem plainly to The Associated Press on Saturday: there is far more work than there are astronauts. Applicants have until Dec. 3 to submit. NASA expects to choose its final candidates by late 2027, and training would begin by early 2028. That is the same year the agency intends to put astronauts back on the lunar surface, more than half a century after the last people left it. By then, Bresnik said, people will be on the moon, so he urged prospective candidates not to delay.

Bresnik and his three crewmates are due to launch next summer. Their mission will stay close to Earth, with no lunar flyby. They will practice docking their capsule with two lunar landers, one built by Elon Musk's SpaceX and the other by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. It is meant as a dress rehearsal for Artemis IV the following year, which will attempt to land two astronauts near the lunar south pole.

The permanent base is meant to follow in stages, taking shape as more rovers, robots, structures and power grids are launched to the surface.

The requirements are specific. Candidates must be U.S. citizens with college degrees and professional work experience. Then comes the waiting. Selected candidates face two years of mandatory training, which can be grueling, and it may be several more years before they actually fly.

Frank Rubio, another Artemis III astronaut, whose 371 consecutive days in space are a U.S. endurance record, stressed patience. He told the AP that applicants should understand most of the work is not going to the moon. That part, he said, will be about 1% of the experience; the rest is contributing to the mission of getting there.

This will be NASA's 25th astronaut class, counting from the original Mercury Seven in 1959. The dates to watch are Dec. 3 for applications, next summer's Artemis III docking test, and the Artemis IV landing attempt that follows.