One Of NASA's Newest Astronauts Is Long Island Native

One of NASA's newest astronauts is a Long Island woman who grew up dreaming of going to the stars. Now, she may be one of the first people to go to Mars.

On Friday, NASA graduated its newest class of astronauts, adding 11 to the ranks of the agency's space explorers. Among them was Jasmin Moghbeli, a Baldwin native. Moghbeli and her fellow astronauts were selected as candidates in 2017 from a pool of more than 18,000 applicants.

According to NASA, this new group of astronauts could be assigned to missions to the International Space Station, to the moon or even to Mars. NASA plans to send the next man — and the first woman — to the moon by 2024, and it hopes to send humans to Mars in the mid-2030s.

“These individuals represent the best of America, and what an incredible time for them to join our astronaut corps,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said. “2020 will mark the return of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil, and will be an important year of progress for our Artemis program and missions to the moon and beyond.”

Moghbeli was born in Bad Nauheim, Germany, but grew up in Baldwin and graduated from Baldwin High School. After high school, she earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering with information technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

She later graduated from the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. When she was selected for the astronaut program, she was test-flying H-1 helicopters and serving as the quality assurance and avionics officer for Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 of the U.S. Marine Corps in Yuma, Arizona. She is a major in the Marine Corps.

She has been a pilot for years and has extensive experience in the air. According to NASA, she has more than 1,600 hours of flight time and has flown 150 combat missions.

Moghbeli is now one of NASA's 48 astronauts. Her two years of training included instruction, practice and testing in spacewalking, robotics, International Space Station systems, T-38 jet proficiency and Russian language, NASA said. As astronauts, NASA says, they will help develop spacecraft, support the teams currently in space and ultimately join the ranks of only about 500 people who have been to space.

After her graduation ceremony, Moghbeli video chatted with students from Lenox Elementary School in Baldwin, where she had graduated as a child.