Since 1978, every new group of NASA astronauts has included women and usually reflected a multiplicity of races and ethnicities.
That is not simply by chance. NASA’s process for selecting its astronauts is not entirely gender- and race-blind. With so many outstanding applicants, choosing a diversified, highly qualified group of candidates has been achievable, said Duane Ross, who worked as manager of NASA’s astronaut selection office from 1976 until he retired in 2014.
“You didn’t lose sight of wanting your astronaut corps to be reflective of society,” he said.
Over most of its history, NASA has risen above partisan bickering, with broad support in Congress from Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. But the makeup of its most visible employees — its astronauts — could now collide with President Trump’s crusade against programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion — or D.E.I.
For NASA to consider race and gender at all in the choosing of astronauts appears to run counter to an executive order that Mr. Trump signed on Jan. 22. That order declares that hiring for federal jobs will “not under any circumstances consider D.E.I.-related factors, goals, policies, mandates, or requirements.”
On the same day, echoing language in a template used by agency heads across the federal government, Janet Petro, the current acting administrator, told NASA employees that D.E.I. programs “divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.”
NASA’s astronauts have served as ambassadors of bravery and technological derring-do for the space agency. But the original astronauts more than half a century ago were all white men, and mostly military test pilots.
In the late 1970s, as the space shuttle era approached, the agency worked to broaden the diversity of the people it launched into the final frontier. And the current requirements for consideration are fairly minimal: U.S. citizenship; a master’s degree in science, engineering or mathematics; and three years of professional experience.
Even during Mr. Trump’s first term, diversity and inclusion was a priority for top NASA officials. The administrator then was Jim Bridenstine, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma, and in 2020, he added “inclusion” as the fifth core value for the space agency, joining “safety,” “integrity,” “teamwork” and “excellence.”
Under Mr. Trump, NASA also promised that the next moon landing would include a woman astronaut. Under President Biden, NASA broadened that promise to include a “person of color,” although not necessarily for the first Artemis program landing.
The embrace of inclusion was also evident last March when NASA issued a call for new astronauts. April Jordan, the current manager of the astronaut selection office, spoke about wanting to choose a group that was reflective of American society.
“The astronauts are the face of NASA,” Ms. Jordan said during an interview on the podcast “Amplify Talent.”
She cited the crew of NASA’s upcoming Artemis II mission, which includes Victor Glover and Christina Koch. That flight is to swing around the moon without landing.
“Being able to see a Black astronaut or a woman astronaut on this really important mission, I think, is important,” Ms. Jordan said during the podcast. “So I feel a sense of responsibility in making sure that we continue to build diversity into our astronaut corps.”
“Our office looks the way it looks because of this intentionality, and thinking about our biases and how it may affect who we hire,” he said. “I think that’s a huge victory.”
How well is NASA doing? No one knows for sure. A report in 2022 by the agency’s inspector general noted that NASA lacked racial and ethnic information for more than a third of its astronauts.
Roger Launius, who was NASA’s chief historian in the 1990s, said the push for diversity also aimed to promote a positive image of NASA among a wider swath of voters so that Congress would continue financing it.
“At least that’s a part of the thinking,” Dr. Launius said.
Last year, more than 8,000 applications poured in by the April 16 deadline, and NASA’s timeline is to announce its selections in June this year.
Cheryl Warner, a NASA spokeswoman, said the astronaut selection was moving ahead as planned. “NASA remains focused on attracting and selecting the best astronaut candidates based on their qualifications, skills and experience to help the agency accomplish its human spaceflight goals,” she said.
To add NASA astronaut to your résumé is one of the hardest goals in the world to aim for.
Ten people were chosen during the previous round in 2021. If NASA selects another 10 astronaut candidates this time that would be an acceptance rate of less than 0.13 percent. Being accepted by Harvard, the California Institute of Technology or another highly selective college is much easier.
Since the beginning of human spaceflight, NASA has always had far more highly qualified candidates than openings.
“Let me say that 100 percent, we never picked anybody that we didn’t feel was fully qualified just in order to include a minority or female,” Mr. Ross said. “That didn’t happen.”
Once applicants who do not meet the basic requirements are tossed out, people including current astronauts read through applications and recommend which ones deserve further attention.
In 1978, NASA had not picked any astronauts since 1969. All of the astronauts of the 1960s were white men.
“That was partly a function of where we were as a society then,” Dr. Launius said.
The requirement for the astronauts selected for NASA’s Mercury program to have a background as a high-performance test pilot “made it virtually impossible to find women who had that skill set,” Dr. Launius said. “There were some African Americans who did, but there were a very small number of those.”
One fighter pilot, Ed Dwight, met the qualifications, but NASA never selected him. A privately financed research program showed that women could pass the physiological tests that NASA used, but the space agency never seriously considered the possibility that women could be astronauts.
“There were a few efforts in the 1960s to broaden that, but it didn’t pan out,” Dr. Launius said.
With the end of the Apollo program, NASA did not need additional astronauts until the space shuttles were ready to fly. And this time, NASA worked to get the word out to organizations like the Society of Women Engineers that not just white men would be considered.
Mr. Ross said there were no quotas set. “But we certainly had a goal of including people from all walks of life,” he said.
Of the thousands who applied, there were probably “a thousand or so” who were highly qualified, Mr. Ross said.
“So we kept narrowing down a little bit at a time,” he said. “There were good women applicants and good minority applicants. So you didn’t have to fudge the system to make it work. They were there, and all you had to do was to pick them.”
Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly to space in 1983 during the seventh space shuttle mission. On the next mission, Guion Bluford became first Black American to reach orbit.
Garrett Reisman, a retired NASA astronaut, said he did not recall a specific conversation discussing race or gender or diversity when he served on the selection board that chose astronauts in 2009.
“It was known to be one of the things we were going for,” Dr. Reisman said. “If you had two people that were completely equal in all other regards, then yes, it would be an advantage to have somebody who brought more diversity to the office.”
Dr. Reisman said that a key part of the job, in addition to flying on rockets, is to inspire the next generation. “We wouldn’t be able to inspire every kid in America if they didn’t see themselves represented,” he said.
He recalled a Fourth of July parade in downtown Houston in 1998 when he was a newly selected astronaut. He and the other members of his group were riding on several fire trucks. “There were a lot of people of color along the parade route watching the parade,” Dr. Reisman said.
The response of the spectators was “almost disinterested,” he said. Then when children caught sight of his fellow astronaut, Leland Melvin, who is Black, “You could just see their eyes light up and they got up on their feet and they started clapping,” Dr. Reisman said.
“The impact he had just by standing on that fire truck,” Dr. Reisman said, “his ability to get these kids excited about space exploration without doing anything, just by being there, just by being seen, was so powerful.”
He added, “And if you can’t connect to those kids, you’re leaving a whole group of people behind.”
