Lawler '09 advances through NASA summer astronaut training

U.S. Naval Academy graduate Rebecca Lawler '09 is continuing her path toward spaceflight as a member of NASA's 2025 Astronaut Candidate Class, which recently reached the halfway point of its nearly two-year training program.

 

Lawler and her fellow astronaut candidates spent the summer completing a demanding series of exercises designed to prepare them for future missions to low Earth orbit, the Moon and eventually Mars. Training included geology field studies in New Mexico and Iceland, flight training aboard NASA's WB-57 aircraft and T-38 jets, altitude chamber runs and water survival exercises.

 

The candidates are also learning spacecraft systems, emergency procedures, Russian language skills and spacewalk techniques as part of their preparation for careers in human spaceflight. NASA expects the class to graduate in 2027, when Lawler and her classmates will join the agency's active astronaut corps and become eligible for future assignments supporting the International Space Station, Artemis missions and deep-space exploration.