14 DAY TRIAL // NASA has announced the astronaut class of 2013. Eight astronaut candidates, four men and four women, will begin training and may one day be part of NASA's deep space missions.
The agency has mentioned plans to go beyond low Earth orbit, and it may make a trip to an asteroid or even set up a deep space station near the moon. But those things are still half a decade from now, at least.
"After an extensive year-and-a-half search, NASA has a new group of potential astronauts who will help the agency push the boundaries of exploration and travel to new destinations in the solar system," NASA wrote.
The candidates come from various backgrounds and have been selected from a record pool of 6,100 applications. Not all astronauts who get picked for these classes make it to space, but many do. Of course, what they will be doing depends more on what NASA manages to get funding for than on any of their capabilities.
If you're interested in knowing more about the candidates, NASA has the full details. What is interesting in this class is that it's the first time there's been an equal number of men and women selected. But NASA says this was by chance, as it simply picked the best candidates regardless of gender.