Half of NASA's New Astronaut Class are Women

NASA recently announced its new astronaut class of 2013, showcasing a new level of diversity rarely seen among its cosmic ranks before: four out of the eight new candidates are women.

"This year we have selected eight highly qualified individuals who have demonstrated impressive strengths academically, operationally, and physically" said Janet Kavandi, director of Flight Crew Operations at Johnson Space Center. "They have diverse backgrounds and skill sets that will contribute greatly to the existing astronaut corps. Based on their incredible experiences to date, I have every confidence that they will apply their combined expertise and talents to achieve great things for NASA and this country in the pursuit of human exploration."  

The eight new astronaut trainees were selected out of 6,100 applicants, the second largest pool NASA has ever had to choose from. Together, they will commence training at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston in August and prepare for a wide variety of tasks, including short trips into low-orbit around Earth and longer missions to asteroids and Mars.

"These new space explorers asked to join NASA because they know we're doing big, bold things here -- developing missions to go farther into space than ever before," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "They're excited about the science we're doing on the International Space Station and our plan to launch from U.S. soil to there on spacecraft built by American companies. And they're ready to help lead the first human mission to an asteroid and then on to Mars." 

The four women selected to train as NASA astronauts are: Christina M. Hammock, 34, from Jacksonville, N.C. who is the current National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration station chief in American Samoa; Nicole Aunapu Mann, 35, a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps and an F/A 18 pilot who is now integrated product team lead at the U.S. Naval Air Station, Patuxent River; Anne C. McClain, 34, a Major in the U.S. Army, an OH-58 helicopter pilot, and a recent graduate of U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River; and Jessica U. Meir, 35, a Ph.D. recipient and assistant professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School.

This week also marks 50 years of women in space flight, kicked off by Valentina Tereshkova on June 16, 1963.