Vice President Mike Pence will be in attendance when NASA's 22nd class of astronauts is introduced Wednesday afternoon.
NASA spokesman Kelly Humphreys says the new candidates will report for duty at theJohnson Space Center in August.
“They'll be here to get ready for two years’ worth of training,” he explains, adding, “then begin their studies and work to prepare for space flight.”
Their jobs are well-defined.
“Missions to perform research on the International Space Station, to launch from American soil spacecraft built by American companies,” Humphreys says, “and launching deep space missions on NASA's new Orion spacecraft and its big space launch system rocket.”
Eighteen thousand people applied for the eight-to-12 positions. The actual number in the 2017 class won't be known until the 1:00 p.m. ceremony.