Since the shuttle program ended in 2011, NASA has been dependent on Russia for rides to the station, a 15-nation project.Pence said the White House planned to form a council to advise President Donald Trump on space policy and strategy, relaunching a body that has been inactive for more than 25 years.N) to develop commercial space taxis that can ferry crews to and from the International Space Station, a $100 billion research lab that flies about 240 miles (400 km) above Earth.Jessica Watkins, 28, a post-doctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology, joins the class after serving on the science team operating the car-sized Curiosity rover which has been exploring Gale Crater on Mars since August 2012.The astronauts have two years of training before they are eligible for flight assignments."Hopefully one day Ill get to fly on a vehicle that has components Ive actually designed," said Robb Kulin, 33, a doctor of engineering and Fulbright Fellow who is joining the astronaut corps from SpaceX in Hawthorne, California.

The trainees include a scientist working with the Mars robotic rover Curiosity, a SpaceX engineer, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and an Army surgeon.NASA named 12 astronauts on Wednesday to the US space agencys first new class of space fliers in five years, chosen from a record buy empty medicine capsules 18,300 applicants, for a new era of space travel.NASA is developing a heavy-lift rocket and Orion capsule for travel to the moon and eventually Mars.US Vice President Mike Pence welcomed the five women and seven men, aged 28 to 42, during their introduction at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administrations Johnson Space Center in Houston. It is also working with Elon Musks Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and Boeing Co (BA. They are scheduled to report for duty at the Johnson Space Center in August."We intend to send her to Mars one day," said acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot.Trump is "firmly committed to NASAs noble mission – leading America in space," Pence said, noting that only 338 Americans have served as NASA astronauts.

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