NASA picks Arizona woman out of 12,000 applicants for first astronaut class in 4 years

An Arizona woman is among 10 new astronaut candidates who will spend two years training for space missions.

NASA on Monday announced its 10 picks out of 12,000 aspiring astronauts. The picks were part of the 2021 astronaut class — the agency's first such class in four years. Christina Birch, a 35-year-old Mesa native who grew up in Gilbert, was among them.

Birch is a 2004 graduate of Gilbert High School.

This won't be Birch's first time representing the U.S. on an international stage — just her first on an interstellar stage.

She left the academic world to represent the U.S. as a track cyclist. She joined the U.S. National Team and qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. She's won three World Cup medals as a U.S. cyclist and competed in the World Championships twice.

Birch began her career in academia. After earning a pair of bachelor's degrees in mathematics and biochemistry and molecular biophysics from the University of Arizona and a biological engineering doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she taught bioengineering at the University of California, Riverside and scientific writing and communication at Caltech.

This is the first year NASA required its candidates to have at least a master's degree in a STEM field.

Birch will join the other nine astronaut candidates announced Monday for two years of training at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. Training starts in January.  Astronaut candidates will cover everything from learning Russian language skills to operating and maintaining the International Space Station.

After the training, according to NASA, they could be sent on missions such as:

• Performing research aboard the International Space Station.
• Launching spacecraft built by private companies on U.S. land.
• Travel to the moon and conduct deep space missions on NASA's Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.

With the latest picks, NASA's announcement notes it has selected 360 astronauts since the original Mercury Seven in 1959.

"We’ve made many giant leaps throughout the last 60 years, fulfilling President Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the moon," Vanessa Wyche, Johnson Space Center director, said in the announcement. "Today we reach further into the stars as we push forward to the moon once again and on to Mars with NASA’s newest astronaut candidate class."

One of the other astronaut candidates, Jessica Wittner, also spent time in Arizona. The 38-year-old U.S. Navy lieutenant commander earned an aerospace engineering degree at the University of Arizona.

Reach reporter Joshua Bowling at jbowling@azcentral.com or 602-444-8138. Follow him on Twitter @MrJoshuaBowling.

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