NASA is hiring astronauts for a Moon base: 25 days to apply, and last time 8,000 people tried for 10 places

NASA is looking for people to live and work on the Moon.

The agency opened applications for a new astronaut class on Saturday 7 November, US time, announcing it at an air show at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Those selected could test new spacecraft, land near the Moon’s south pole and work at the lunar base NASA plans to build up over the coming years.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the missions “will demand technical excellence, sound judgment, teamwork, and courage.”

Who can apply?

Any US citizen, with no official age limit. Applicants need a master’s degree in a STEM field, such as engineering, maths or the sciences, plus at least three years of related professional experience after the degree. NASA will also consider people in a STEM PhD program, doctors, and pilots with extensive flight experience. Master’s-level nursing degrees now count, a recent change.

That rules out most Australians: only those who also hold US citizenship are eligible.

Starting pay is US$164,395. Applications close on 3 December, US time, which is the morning of 4 December in Australia.

What are the odds?

Long. NASA’s last call, two years ago, drew more than 8,000 applications, and 10 people were selected in September 2025. NASA has 32 active astronauts and has chosen 370 people to train as astronauts since the 1960s. This will be its 25th class since the Mercury Seven in 1959.

Even the winners face a wait: two years of mandatory training, then possibly several more before a flight. Artemis III commander Randy Bresnik said “we have far more work than we have astronauts”, while Frank Rubio, who holds the US record of 371 consecutive days in space, cautioned that most of the work will not be on the Moon.

How close is the Moon base?

Closer on paper than in hardware. The Artemis II crew flew around the Moon in April. Artemis III, due to launch next year, will stay near Earth and practise docking with lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin. Artemis IV, the year after, aims to land two astronauts near the south pole.

The base itself will be built up over time from rovers, robots, structures and power systems sent ahead of the crews, and NASA is leaning heavily on private companies to deliver them.

Who will carry the cargo?

That is what the second announcement settles. NASA named eight companies for CLPS 2, the successor to its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program: Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, ispace-U.S., Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems, SpaceX and Voyager Technologies.

The contract runs for 10 years with a combined ceiling of US$10 billion. It is not money in the bank: being on the list makes each company eligible to bid for individual delivery missions, with no work guaranteed. NASA also raised the ceiling on the original CLPS contract from US$2.6 billion to US$4.2 billion to cover the first phase of the Moon base.

Why does it matter beyond the US?

The pool of people and companies building the next stage of lunar exploration is being chosen now, and it is overwhelmingly American. Once a base exists, access to it, for science or for other nations’ astronauts, will run through agreements with NASA and these contractors. For countries without their own launch capability, including Australia, those partnerships are the way in.