NASA will start accepting applications for new candidates for its astronaut corps in early November, the U.S. space agency announced Oct. 3.
Final selections for the new astronaut class, which will be the 21st group of space travelers in the agency’s history, will be made in 2013, agency officials said. The newly minted spacefliers will then begin training in August 2013 for long-duration missions to the international space station as well as deep-space destinations.
“This next class will support missions to the station and will arrive via transportation systems now in development,” Janet Kavandi, director of flight crew operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement. “They also will have the opportunity to participate in NASA’s continuing exploration programs that will include missions beyond low-Earth orbit.”
