An American family nurse practitioner who has never piloted a jet can apply for NASA’s next astronaut class. So can a helicopter pilot who took a very different route to the same application form.

NASA opened applications on November 7 and will close them December 3. Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the opening at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the agency recruits crews for work in Earth orbit and its Artemis lunar program.

The NASA recruitment announcement spells out which qualifications count. U.S. citizens with a qualifying graduate education in science, engineering or mathematics have one route in, and NASA also accepts several medical credentials, including a doctor of nursing practice and a family nurse practitioner qualification.

There is a good reason to read the experience rules closely. The agency requires at least three years of relevant professional work after the qualifying degree, and for physicians, time spent in residency can count if the residency is completed by July 2027.

Pilots have another way to demonstrate experience. Someone flying high-performance jets can qualify with 750 hours in command, while a helicopter pilot needs 1,000 hours in total, including at least 300 in command.

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All candidates must pass the agency’s medical examination for long-duration spaceflight. The recruiting notice also singles out the ability to lead, communicate and work on a team, skills a physician can bring from a hospital just as a pilot can bring them from a flight deck.

In marking the Marine Corps birthday on Tuesday, Isaacman pointed to John Glenn and the Marines serving as astronauts today. Military aviators helped build the corps, and they will have company in the applicant pool.

A December application deadline leaves a long stretch before anyone reports for duty. The Johnson Space Center selection team expects to spend December through April reviewing applications before inviting the first group to Houston in the spring of 2027.

A second trip to Houston awaits the finalists in the summer. If the schedule holds, Americans will learn the names of the new candidates in the fall, and the people selected will report to Johnson that winter.

NASA leaves itself room to change that schedule depending on how many people apply. The last time the agency recruited a class, more than 8,000 people applied and NASA selected ten.

Those ten are now in a training program that lasts nearly two years. Before anyone can earn a flight assignment, candidates have to learn skills well outside the field that got them hired, from lunar geology to working outside a spacecraft.

Isaacman looked out at the crowd at Kennedy and wondered which person there might one day walk on the Moon. Somebody who already has the qualifications can take a concrete step toward answering him this month.

For the nurse practitioner, engineer or pilot reading the notice between shifts, the date that matters first is Thursday, December 3. NASA must receive the completed application by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time.

 

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