NASA has chosen 12 new astronauts from its biggest pool of applicants ever, hand-picking seven men and five women who could one day fly aboard the nation's next generation of spacecraft.
The astronaut class of 2017 includes doctors, scientists, engineers, pilots and military officers from Anchorage to Miami and points in between. They've worked in submarines, emergency rooms, university lecture halls, jet cockpits and battleships. They range in age from 29 to 42, and they typically have led the pack.
"It makes me personally feel very inadequate when you read what these folks have done," NASA's acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot said on Wednesday.
Vice President Mike Pence welcomed the group during a televised ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. He offered President Donald Trump's congratulations and noted that the president is "firmly committed to NASA's noble mission, leading America in space."
Pence assured the crowd that NASA will have the resources and support necessary to continue to make history. He said he would lead a resurrected National Space Council to help set the direction of the program.
Under Trump, "America will lead in space once again, and the world will marvel," Pence said.
More than 18,300 people threw their hats into the space ring during a brief application period, doubling the previous record of 8000 set in 1978, when the space shuttles were close to launching.
The 12 new recruits will join 44 astronauts already in the NASA corps. US astronauts have not launched from home soil since 2011, when the space shuttles were retired, thus the low head count. Americans have been hitching rides aboard Russian spacecraft in the meantime, but that could change next year.
