NASA opens applications for new astronaut class to work on Moon base, deadline 3 December

The call for applicants

NASA opened its call for new astronauts on Saturday, 7 November, at the MAX POWER air show held at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an event that promoted lunar exploration alongside aviation and technology. The agency is looking for explorers who could live and work at a future Moon base, and it says the people chosen would help shape its future in space. Applications close at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, 3 December. Selection is expected in late 2027, with training for the chosen candidates expected to start in 2028. This is the first intake since the agency last opened applications in 2024.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman described the moment in these words.

“This is an extraordinary time to join NASA's astronaut corps.”

Who can apply

Applicants must be US citizens. They need a master's degree in a STEM discipline, a medical qualification, pilot training, or at least two years of a relevant doctoral program. Every applicant also needs three years of related professional experience. Pilots face separate flight-hour thresholds: 750 hours as pilot in command of a high-performance jet, 1,500 total hours in some other fixed-wing aircraft, or 1,000 total hours in a rotary-wing aircraft. Applications are submitted through NASA's official website.

Background and the last selection

NASA has chosen 370 people for astronaut candidate training since the 1960s, and it currently has 32 active astronauts. The previous call, opened in 2024, drew more than 8,000 applicants, and the agency picked 10 candidates in September 2025. Those 10 are reported to be completing nearly two years of training. Before 2024, NASA had gone four years without seeking new astronauts, because its crew work then was limited to a small number of International Space Station trips.

Applicants (more than 8,000)8,000

Astronauts selected10

Applicants (more than 8,000)

8000 people

Astronauts selected

10 people

Data from the article text

Scott Tingle, chief astronaut and chair of the Astronaut Selection Board at Johnson Space Center in Houston, put the career stakes this way.

“For those who apply, becoming a NASA astronaut is more than a career opportunity.”

Moon base and the road ahead

NASA plans to send people back to the Moon in 2028 under the Artemis program, and it aims to establish a lunar base in the 2030s. Isaacman and other agency leaders have set out the ambition of returning Americans to the Moon in 2028. In April, the Artemis program sent a crew into lunar orbit, the first in more than 50 years. SpaceX and Blue Origin are both expected to support a crewed lunar landing. Separately, NASA awarded Blue Origin a base contract of $94 million to carry a nuclear-powered rover called PROMISE to the lunar south pole in 2028, where an 18-month mission would serve as the first phase of the new base. The rover is being built by JPL from spare flight components and engineering test models tied to Curiosity and Perseverance, and it can operate through lunar nights in permanently shadowed regions where ice is presumed. NASA also selected eight companies for the second phase of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, among them Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines and Voyager Technologies.