NASA has opened applications for its next class of astronauts, inviting Americans to apply for a place in the team that will support the agency's return to the Moon and its preparations for crewed missions to Mars. Officials announced the recruitment drive on Saturday 7 November during an air show at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and NASA confirmed the details in a news release the same day.

US citizens have until 11.59pm Eastern time on Thursday 3 December 2026 to submit their completed application materials. NASA expects to make its final selection in late 2027, with the new candidates beginning training in early 2028. Applicants must be US citizens and hold a master's degree in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics field, along with professional work experience. Full details and the application link are published on NASA's astronaut recruitment page.

The call comes because NASA's astronaut corps is stretched. The agency currently has only 32 active astronauts, and the workload facing the Artemis programme is growing fast. "We have far more work than we have astronauts," Artemis III commander Randy Bresnik told The Associated Press on Saturday, urging would-be applicants not to delay.

This is the first time NASA has opened astronaut applications since 2024. That round drew more than 8,000 applications, and 10 candidates were selected in September 2025. Those 10 are still completing nearly two years of training. The new intake will be NASA's 25th astronaut class since the original Mercury Seven in 1959, and the agency says it has selected 370 people as astronaut candidates since the 1960s. NASA has not announced how many places the new class will have.

The recruits will join NASA as it builds towards a sustained presence on the Moon. April's Artemis II lunar flyaround opened the current lunar campaign, and Bresnik and his three Artemis III crewmates are due to launch next summer to practise docking their capsule with a pair of lunar landers, one built by SpaceX and the other by Blue Origin. That mission will stay close to Earth as a dress rehearsal for the Artemis IV mission the following year, which aims to land two astronauts near the lunar south pole. NASA says the Moon base will then take shape as more rovers, robots, structures and power grids are launched.

Becoming an astronaut demands patience as well as qualifications. Frank Rubio, whose 371 consecutive days in space is a US endurance record, told the Associated Press that candidates should understand most of their work will not happen on the Moon itself. "It's important for them to realize most of that work is not going to the moon, right?" he said. "That will be about 1% of your experience. What you're doing is contributing to the mission of going to the moon." The two years of mandatory training can be gruelling, and it can take several more years after that before a new astronaut finally flies.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the moment to join the corps was extraordinary, with the agency returning astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028 after an absence of more than half a century. Anyone interested has just under four weeks from the announcement to apply, with the 3 December deadline fixed and no extension announced.