Posted: Fri, Apr 3, 2020, 2:37 PM ET (1837 GMT)

More than 12,000 people submitted applications in NASA's latest astronaut selection round. The deadline for submitting applications was Tuesday, with the agency now starting a selection process that will end with a new astronaut class in the summer of 2021. The number of applications was the second-highest in the agency's history, but down a third from the previous, record-setting round in 2016. NASA noted that it increased the educational requirements in this round and shortened the application period from two months to one.