NASA names Group 24 astronauts, first class with more women than men

NASA on Monday introduced 10 new astronaut candidates at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, selecting the group from a pool of more than 8,000 applicants as it prepares for missions to low Earth orbit, commercial space stations, the moon and potentially Mars. The cohort, officially designated Group 24, includes six women and four men, marking the first time a NASA astronaut class has more women than men, and will begin two years of training before becoming eligible for flight assignments.

The new candidates are Ben Bailey of Charlottesville, Virginia; Lauren Edgar of Sammamish, Washington; Adam Fuhrmann of Leesburg, Virginia; Cameron Jones of Savanna, Illinois; Yuri Kubo of Columbus, Indiana; Rebecca Lawler of Little Elm, Texas; Anna Menon of Houston; Imelda Muller of Copake Falls, New York; Erin Overcash of Goshen, Kentucky; and Katherine Spies of San Diego. Their backgrounds span geology, engineering and test piloting. Edgar is a planetary scientist who worked on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, and Menon, a SpaceX senior engineer, is the only candidate with prior orbital experience, having flown on last year's private Polaris Dawn mission. Officials said Menon and...