Meet 4 of NASA's Newest Astronaut Candidates

I now want to present to you, the 2017 Astronaut

Candidate Class for the great outfit at NASA.

[Announcer] NASA's newest class of astronaut

candidates are a diverse group of pilots, scientists,

and engineers who will join the rarefied ranks

of those with the right stuff.

They were picked from an applicant pool

of more than 18 thousand.

I pick up the phone, and they say, you know,

hi, how's your day going, and in my head I'm thinking

like I don't know, you tell me!

But you know, out loud, I say something like

so far, so good, we're doing okay, how are you,

and on the other end of the phone,

they say well, I think your day is about to get

a little bit better, and I just, just hearing the words

we want you to join the Astronaut Candidate Class,

I, I'll never forget that moment.

[Announcer] These new astronauts might be among the next

to travel on missions to deep space.

I know NASA's doing a little bit of thought

about how they would provide surface power on Mars

or the moon, and one of the candidates for that

is a nuclear reactor, so I'm particularly interested

in that because of my educational and operational

background, so if somehow I could plug into that team,

it would be awesome, but obviously I'm ready

to serve in any way they ask me to.

[Announcer] For the next two years,

these prospective astronauts will train to do everything

a space crew might need to do.

I'm super excited to do the spacewalks.

Just hopping in, the training spacewalk of course.

Hopping into the spacesuit, putting it on,

going into a pool for multiple hours on end,

and just learning how to do a spacewalk

around the mock space station they have in the pool.

[Announcer] As exciting as a trip to Mars might be,

members of this new class of astronauts

are incredibly humble.

They told Wired their goal was

to inspire the next generation of explorers.

Making these innovations and inventions

that we bring back to Earth that help everyone

and enrich everyone's lives, but probably most profound

for me is the opportunity to inspire our children,

the next generation, to dream big,

and to build a better tomorrow.

And for all those reasons above,

I couldn't think of a better way to leave something positive

and contribute to our humanity.