On June 7, 2017, NASA announced their latest cohort of 12 astronaut candidates. In January 2020, 11 of them will graduate at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Of those 11, five are women.
NASA’s Artemis program received over 18,000 applications. The program, billed by NASA as “humanity’s return to the Moon,” plans to land the first woman and next man on the Moon by the year 2024 for research purposes, with the aim of exploring further across the lunar landscape than Apollo 11.
In 2020, the entire cohort of Astronaut Class 22 will graduate with the exception of Robb Kulin, an original candidate who retired from NASA in August 2018. Two Canadian Space Agency candidates complete the graduating class.
But who are the five talented women who will become role models for the next generation of aspiring female astronauts?
Kayla Barron
As per NASA, Barron, 32, is an ex-U.S. Navy lieutenant hailing from Richland, Washington, with a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge in England. Barron came to NASA from the U.S. Naval Academy with experience in submarine warfare.
Loral O'Hara
A certified EMT with a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University, O’Hara, 36, worked for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution before joining NASA. Her research focused on the engineering, testing, and operation of deep-ocean research vessels. O'Hara is from Sugar Land, Texas.
Jasmin Moghbeli
German-born, New York native Moghbeli, 36, has a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. She is also a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School; after graduating, Moghbeli tested H-1 helicopters in Yuma, Arizona.
Zena Cardman
Originally from Williamsburg, Virginia, 32-year-old Cardman has a master’s degree in marine sciences from The University of North Carolina. As a research fellow at Pennsylvania State University, Cardman was looking at microorganisms in subsurface environments and had already worked with NASA on analog missions in British Columbia, Hawaii, and Idaho when she was recruited as a candidate.
Jessica Watkins
Watkins, from Lafayette in Colorado, has a doctorate in geology from the University of California. The 31-year-old was already affiliated with NASA before being accepted as an astronaut candidate; she worked at their Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and as a collaborator on NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity.
The graduating astronauts will finish their two years of basic training and receive their astronaut pins on Jan. 10, 2020, as per NASA. During basic training, all candidates were schooled in spacewalking, International Space Station systems, robotics, T-38 jet proficiency, and speaking Russian.
Moghbeli spoke to NPR about starting early in order to realize astronomical ambitions: “Start looking into science, technology, engineering, math, those kinds of fields,” she advised.
“There were many other applicants that applied who were extremely qualified for this position that aren’t lucky enough to be sitting up here like I am,” she added. “So make sure you’re doing what you love.”
The graduating class will join the active astronaut corps and embark upon careers in space exploration that may involve deployment to the International Space Station—which will celebrate 20 years of human occupation in November 2020—to the Moon, or even to Mars.
The journey has just begun. As of 2020, these five inspirational women, and their cohort, will be reaching for the stars.
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