{"id":957840,"date":"2026-11-09T05:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T05:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/957840\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T05:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T05:24:11","slug":"nasa-opens-applications-for-moon-base-astronauts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/957840\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Opens Applications for Moon Base Astronauts"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re itching to fulfill your\u00a0For All Mankind dreams by living on the Moon, you\u2019ve got under a month to apply to be part of NASA\u2019s Artemis program and do just that. The U.S. space agency announced yesterday<\/a> that it \u201cis looking for the explorers who will help write the next chapter of human spaceflight.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you feel you\u2019re up for it, you can apply on NASA\u2019s website<\/a>. The agency said in an announcement that those who are accepted \u201cwill join NASA as America returns to the Moon, builds the Moon Base, and lays the groundwork for the first crewed missions to Mars.\u201d They will \u201ctrain to operate on the lunar surface, live and work beyond Earth, and take on missions that will push the boundaries of human exploration farther than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not just anyone can join. Among NASA\u2019s many requirements are that applicants be U.S. citizens with a STEM field master\u2019s degree, including in \u201cengineering, biological science, physical science, or computer science from an accredited institution.\u201d The window to join isn\u2019t a big one; those interested have until 11:59 PM EST on December 3, 2026, to submit an application. NASA will select its new crop of space-farers in \u201clate 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for how the new astronauts will survive on the Moon, NASA revealed in a separate announcement<\/a> that it has opened bidding to eight companies for contracts for \u201cfuture lunar surface delivery missions,\u201d which would be part of the second phase of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The list includes SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin Space. Absent is Boeing, whose Starliner program has been plagued with issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CLPS 2, as NASA refers to this new phase, \u201cis a 10-year, multiple-award, indefinite-delivery\/indefinite-quantity master contract with a combined maximum value of $10 billion.\u201d Companies that win the bidding will \u201cwill provide lunar delivery services, including managing, building, and operating landers that transport NASA science, technology, and infrastructure payloads to the Moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement comes a day after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted that he expects government contracts to fall to roughly 5% of SpaceX\u2019s revenue within a year. That seems pessimistic in light of NASA\u2019s announcement. Then again, the U.S. government\u2019s makeup will be quite different after a historic election that will, in January, see the balance of power dramatically shift toward Democrats and away from the Musk-friendly Republican party he spent around half a billion dollars<\/a> trying to keep in power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re itching to fulfill your\u00a0For All Mankind dreams by living on the Moon, you\u2019ve got under a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":957841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[216873,64,63,34986,131,128,285,5437],"class_list":["post-957840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-artemis-program","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blue-origin","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/957841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}