New NASA astronauts headed for destinations unknown

Eight new people have what it takes to travel in space ? if NASA can decide where they will go.

On 17 June the US space agency announced its new class of astronauts, the first who will be trained for exploration beyond Earth orbit since the Apollo years.

Chosen from a pool of more than 6300 applicants, the class of 2013 includes pilots, military officers, doctors and a physicist. Several are SCUBA certified and have spent time in remote locations such as Antarctica.

"Each person is chock-full of talent," says Janet Kavandi, director of Flight Crew Operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. "They work in some pretty extreme environments ? like space but not quite space. It's just an easier transition for people when they've experienced those environments." The class is also evenly split between men and women for the first time in NASA's history, which Kavandi says was not deliberate.

Early training will focus on trips to the International Space Station and preparing to be the first humans to fly in commercial vehicles like the SpaceX Dragon capsule. After that, their path is uncertain.

Skipping to Mars

NASA recently confirmed a plan to drag an asteroid into lunar orbit to use as a training ground for deep-space exploration. But if it passes, a bill drafted by the US House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology would axe that mission. "The draft legislation focuses NASA's limited resources on initiatives that have strong, long-standing bipartisan support, like sending humans to Mars," a Congressional aide revealed.

The bill will be debated at a hearing on 19 June. Whatever the outcome, the overall training plans for the new astronaut corps will mostly stay the same, says Ellen Ochoa, director of the Johnson Space Center. Existing plans are already designed to teach astronauts how to prepare for a mission to Mars.

"A lot of the training we will do with them will be applicable to many different destinations in space," she says.

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