NASA Astronaut Group 23
NASA Astronaut Group 23 (nicknamed "The Flies") was announced on 6 December 2021, with the class reporting for duty some time in 2022. Twelve astronaut candidates were selected, including seven men and five women. History. NASA announced the creation of this astronaut group in February 2020 and accepted applications for astronaut hires during the month of March 2020. For this class, the educational requirements increased to be at minimum a master's degree in a STEM field (engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science, or mathematics) from an accredited institution; in classes prior to this, a  bachelor's degree was all that was required. Additionally, a 2-hour online assessment was required for the first time. Over 12,000 applications were received by NASA, coming from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories. The Group 23 Astronaut Candidates were originally planned to arrive at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for training in the summer of 2021, and when their approximately two-year-long training program is complete, they become available for future missions to the International Space Station in low Earth orbit aboard NASA or commercial crew vehicles, the Moon via  the Artemis program, and Mars. However, due to complications with interviewing potential applicants in person due to COVID-19 restrictions at JSC, the announcement of the new class has been pushed back twice: Two Emirati candidates, Nora Al Matrooshi and Mohammad Al Mulla, selected by the MBRSC, will take part in training as international partner astronauts. Hazza Al Mansouri — who already went to space on board Soyuz MS-15 – and candidate Sultan Al Neyadi, were already training at NASA since before the 23rd group was chosen, but only Nora and Mohammad are considered part of the group 23. Group members. The list : International partners astronauts. Two candidate astronauts from the United Arab Emirates are training as part of the group 23: