NASA announces its new class of astronaut candidates at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday. NASA

NASA on Monday introduced the 10 people — selected from a pool of 8,000 applicants — who will join the agency’s astronaut corps as it races to return to the moon before attempting an unprecedented crewed mission to Mars.

The group includes six women and four men, whom acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy called “America’s best and brightest.”

“And we’re going to need America’s best and brightest (for) all our exploration plans for the future,” Duffy said. “We are going back to the moon. … And I’ll just tell you this, I’ll be damned if the Chinese beat NASA or beat America back to the moon.”

The 10 inductees include Ben Bailey, a mechanical engineer and chief warrant officer 3 for t

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