Four Patuxent River Test Pilots Selected For NASA’s 2025 Astronaut Class

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — Four graduates of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River have joined NASA’s newest astronaut candidate class, a distinction that highlights the Southern Maryland installation’s long-standing role as a proving ground for the nation’s most elite aviators and engineers.

Rebecca Lawler, a former Navy lieutenant commander, Lt. Cmdr. Erin Overcash, CW3 Ben Bailey of the U.S. Army and Lt. Col. Katherine Spies are among just 10 people nationwide named to NASA’s 2025 Astronaut Candidate Class, announced Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA said the new class — its 24th since 1959 — was chosen from more than 8,000 applicants across the country. The group will spend the next two years in intensive training in robotics, survival, geology, space medicine and simulated spacewalks before becoming eligible for missions.

In a statement, the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division said, “These exceptional aviators and engineers represent the cutting edge of military precision, tactical expertise, and innovation.”

Watch NASA’s 2025 Astronaut Candidate Class announcement here:

*“Astronaut training is an apprenticeship,” one veteran astronaut told the group. “The bonds you form with your classmates will carry you throughout your career and future missions.”

Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy described the selectees as living embodiments of the American dream. “More than 8,000 people applied – scientists, pilots, engineers, dreamers from every corner of this nation,” he said. “The 10 men and women sitting here today embody the truth that in America, regardless of where you start, there is no limit to what a determined dreamer can achieve – even going to space.”

Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA Johnson, called them “America’s best and brightest” and said the group will “usher in the Golden Age of innovation and exploration as we push toward the Moon and Mars.”

• Lt. Cmdr. Erin Overcash, 34, of Goshen, Kentucky, is an F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet pilot with more than 1,300 flight hours and 249 carrier arrested landings. A U.S. Naval Test Pilot School graduate, she holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s in bioastronautics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She also trained with the USA Rugby Women’s National Team through the Navy’s World Class Athlete Program. “In the Navy, when you share space with thousands of sailors, you learn to thrive as a team,” Overcash said. “That’s the perspective I hope to bring to our astronaut candidate group.”

• CW3 Ben Bailey, 38, of Charlottesville, Virginia, is a rotary-wing test pilot with more than 2,000 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft. He specializes in Army helicopters, including the UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47F Chinook, and is completing a master’s in systems engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School. Bailey said he looks forward to the variety of training ahead. “Each one of these would be exciting in its own right,” he said. “To combine them all over the next two years is fantastic — and more than that, I’m excited to spend that time with the other nine here on stage with me.”

• Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Lawler, 38, of Little Elm, Texas, is a former Navy lieutenant commander, P-3 pilot and experimental test pilot with more than 2,800 flight hours in 45 aircraft. A Naval Academy graduate, she earned master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the National Test Pilot School. She has flown as a NOAA hurricane hunter and supported NASA’s polar ice surveys. At the time of her selection, she was a test pilot for United Airlines. “When I was with NOAA, I worked with NASA forecasting hurricanes during hurricane season,” Lawler said. “I’m so excited to use those experiences and everything I’ve learned to be part of this incredible team.”

• Lt. Col. Katherine Spies, 43, of San Diego, is a Marine Corps AH-1 attack helicopter pilot and experimental test pilot with more than 2,000 flight hours in over 30 aircraft. She holds a chemical engineering degree from the University of Southern California and a master’s in design engineering from Harvard University. Before her NASA selection, she was director of flight test engineering at Gulfstream Aerospace. Spies added a lighter note during introductions: “Those who know me know I love to do handstands everywhere I go. It’s followed me all over the world — and now into this class.”

Together, the 10 candidates represent the agency’s 24th astronaut class since 1959. With their addition, NASA has selected 370 astronaut candidates since the original Mercury Seven.

Rep. Brian Babin, who represents Houston’s Johnson Space Center, called the group “the next chapter of human spaceflight.” He said, “Space exploration has always stirred something deep within the soul of the American people. Some of you will walk on the Moon. Some of you may take humanity’s first steps on Mars.”

For the Pax River graduates, the journey ahead will be demanding but also historic — one that stretches from the Chesapeake Bay to deep space.

For more on the 2025 Astronaut Candidate Class, visit www.nasa.gov/astronauts.

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