NASA’s Latest Astronaut Class Welcomes SpaceX Veterans Anna Menon and Yuri Kubo

SpaceX has an impressive roster of alumni, many of whom have started some of the industry’s most significant startups, while others have become astronauts.

This week, NASA announced its astronaut class for 2025, featuring two notable SpaceX veterans: Anna Menon and Yuri Kubo. Both have contributed over a decade to SpaceX, playing essential roles in transforming the company into the powerhouse it is today.

Menon joined SpaceX in 2018, following her tenure at NASA in the Mission Control Center, where she provided biomedical support for astronauts. As a senior engineer at SpaceX, she focused on private astronaut missions and served as a mission specialist and medical officer on the Polaris Dawn mission, which set multiple records, including the first commercial spacewalk.

Kubo dedicated 12 years to SpaceX, serving as a Falcon 9 launch director and holding senior positions overseeing the Starshield program and ground systems.

Out of more than 8,000 applicants, these 10 astronauts were selected. Their training is intense: They will spend nearly two years acquiring the skills necessary for assignments on the International Space Station and beyond. The training curriculum includes robotics, geology, foreign languages, space medicine, and more, alongside simulated spacewalks and flight training, according to NASA.

If they successfully complete their training, this group will join over 40 active astronauts and may become part of a team assisting NASA in transitioning to commercial private space stations after the ISS’s retirement in 2030. They will also be eligible for upcoming science missions to the Moon and Mars.

This isn’t the first occasion that SpaceX alumni have transitioned to government astronaut roles. Robb Kulin, the former director of flight reliability at SpaceX, joined NASA’s 2017 class as a candidate. In 2021, Anil Menon — SpaceX’s first flight surgeon and medical director — was selected for the Artemis astronaut program. (Anil and Anna are married.)

This trend illustrates how the world’s leading private space company is becoming more integrated with authentic astronaut activities — not just supporting missions like Polaris but also cultivating astronauts themselves.

For many years, NASA astronauts predominantly came from military or academic backgrounds, with little involvement from the commercial sector in creating astronaut candidates. However, SpaceX has altered that landscape, emerging as a training hub for engineers and mission operators focused on human spaceflight.