NASA opens astronaut applications for Artemis, with a moon base on the horizon

NASA is hiring, and the job comes with a serious commute. The space agency opened applications Saturday for a new astronaut class, announcing the call during an air show at Kennedy Space Center built around lunar exploration, aviation and technology. Want in? Applications close December 3.

The agency needs bodies. NASA currently has just 32 active astronauts, and Artemis III commander Randy Bresnik put the problem plainly to the Associated Press: “We have far more work than we have astronauts.” The last recruitment round drew more than 8,000 applicants two years ago, with only 10 making the final cut in September 2025.

The clock is tight-ish. NASA expects to name its picks by late 2027, with training starting in early 2028 — the same year the agency intends to put astronauts back on the lunar surface after an absence of more than half a century. Bresnik's pitch to candidates: “we're going to have people on the moon – so don't delay.”

Next summer, Bresnik and three crewmates blast into orbit to practice docking their capsule with two lunar landers — one from Elon Musk's SpaceX, one from Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin. That mission stays near Earth with no lunar flyby, serving as a dress rehearsal for Artemis IV the following year, which will attempt to land two astronauts near the lunar south pole. The promised moon base will come together as more rovers, robots, structures and power grids launch.

Artemis III's Frank Rubio, whose 371 consecutive days in space is a US endurance record, wants applicants to know what they're signing up for. “It's important for them to realise most of that work is not going to the moon, right?” he told the AP. “That will be about 1 percent of your experience.” Candidates must be US citizens with college degrees and professional work experience, and the two years of mandatory training can be gruelling — with several more years possible before a launch.

This will be NASA's 25th astronaut class since the Mercury Seven in 1959.