NASA's Geoscience Training Program for Astronauts

Geoscientists have been training and preparing astronauts to observe the Earth from space and explore other planetary surfaces with a legacy that reaches back to the early days of the space program. Continuing this legacy and critical function, a core NASA team has been closely coordinating with the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) as well as academic, institute, and other governmental partners to conduct a comprehensive geoscience training program that ranges from initial astronaut candidate training to preparing crew for Artemis missions. Described below are the three program training phases, along with recent program highlights and forward planning.