{"id":35736,"date":"2021-02-07T17:00:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/02\/07\/naval-academy-grads-hope-to-walk-on-the-moon-with-nasa-team\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:42:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:42:33","slug":"naval-academy-grads-hope-to-walk-on-the-moon-with-nasa-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2021\/02\/07\/naval-academy-grads-hope-to-walk-on-the-moon-with-nasa-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Naval Academy grads hope to walk on the moon with NASA team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ANNAPOLIS, Md. \u2014 Some kids want to be astronauts when they grow up. Not Kayla Barron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She wanted to be a Navy officer, so that\u2019s what she did. After graduating from the Naval Academy in 2010, Barron, 33, earned a master\u2019s degree in nuclear engineering, became a submarine warfare officer<\/a> and was deployed three times to the Pacific. Then, she returned to Annapolis to serve as a flag aide, which is a personal assistant to a high-ranking official, to former Superintendent Vice Adm. Walter Carter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If not for that job, Barron may not have become one of two Naval Academy graduates and former athletes to be selected for the Artemis Team, which \u201cwill lead humanity forward to the moon and prepare us for the next giant leap, the exploration of Mars,\u201d NASA says. The mission, announced under the Trump administration, will be NASA\u2019s first voyage to the lunar surface in half a century and its goal is to land the next man and first woman there by 2024, though experts claim the timeline could stretch much longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barron and former Navy soccer player Nicole Mann, 43 will be fifth and sixth Naval Academy graduates to visit the moon<\/a> and the first since 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\t