Nearly 18,000 People Applied to Be NASA Astronauts. About 12 Made It.
The new class will train for nearly two years in robotics, survival, geology and space medicine after a competitive selection process.
2 Articles
2 Articles
Nearly 18,000 People Applied to Be NASA Astronauts. About 12 Made It.
NASA receives 12,000 to 18,000 applications in a typical astronaut cycle and selects about ten to twelve people, an acceptance rate well below one percent. Getting in means clearing academic, medical, and psychological filters most applicants never pass, and that is before two years of training even begins.
More than 8,000 people applied to become NASA astronauts in 2024, and just 10 were chosen — not simply the strongest or the fastest, but people who could master robotics, medicine, foreign languages, survival training, high-performance jets and the one skill space demands most: staying calm when nothing goes to plan.
The odds were never the most interesting part, though they were sharp enough to make the point. More than 8,000 people applied to NASA’s astronaut candidate program during the 2024 application cycle. In September 2025, NASA introduced 10 of them as its newest astronaut candidates. That is the clean arithmetic of the selection. But it does not explain what NASA was selecting for. The popular image of an astronaut still leans toward speed, strengt…
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