After completing her two-year training program, Lauren Edgar will be eligible for mission assignments, which could potentially include trips to the ISS or the moon.
HOUSTON — Lauren Edgar’s journey from the Pacific Northwest to a chance at walking on the moon started in the second grade, when she went to a space shuttle launch and it opened her eyes to space exploration.
“It made me wonder what else is out there,” Edgar said. “That’s really what inspired me and kind of set me on this path to pursuing space exploration and the desire to maybe someday be an astronaut.”
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NASA selected Edgar, who is from Sammamish, Washington, to join the 2025 astronaut candidate class. She’s now in the midst of a rigorous two-year training program at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Before this, Edgar was part of the Artemis III Geology Team, helping define the some of the goals for future exploration of the moon.
“I was the deputy principal investigator for the geology team and helping to define some of the surface exploration goals and stations and the types of observations that astronauts might one day make on the moon,” said Edgar.
The agency’s Artemis program aims to return humans to the moon and establish a sustained presence there as preparation for future Mars missions.
Edgar said candidate training encompasses everything from flying airplanes to learning International Space Station systems, including robotics.
“I just came from a robotics class this morning where I’m learning how to operate the robotic arm on the space station,” Edgar said. “We get some language training, some geology training. There’s a lot of different things that we get to learn about, and it’s really exciting.”
Edgar said the complexity of the International Space Station has impressed her most during training. The station has maintained a continuous human presence for 25 years, with countless systems working in harmony — what she calls “an engineering marvel.”
Before joining NASA full time, Edgar worked as a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. Her research involved studying Earth, the moon and Mars through remote sensing and field techniques. She conducted fieldwork in Iceland, Arizona, New Mexico and Antarctica as analogs for human missions to the moon and Mars.
She has more than 17 years of mission operations experience at NASA supporting the Mars Science Laboratory and Mars Exploration Rovers.
Edgar applied multiple times before being selected in 2025 as an astronaut candidate alongside a group that she described as “phenomenal human beings.”
“Just wanted to say I’m so grateful and honored to be a part of this class and standing here alongside my peers,” she said.
After completing her two-year training program, Edgar will be eligible for mission assignments. It is yet to determined whether those missions will involve the International Space Station, lunar exploration through the Artemis program or an eventual Mars missions.
“That is a decision far above my pay grade,” Edgar said when asked about the possibility of walking on the moon.
Edgar graduated from Skyline High School in Sammamish. She holds a doctorate and master’s degree in geology from the California Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in earth sciences from Dartmouth College.
Edgar is married and enjoys backpacking, running, yoga, kayaking and outdoor activities with her dog.