Astronaut Aki Hoshide (right) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is the NEEMO 18 crew's commander and the sole member of the crew with inflight experience. He'll be joined by the European Space Agency's Thomas Pesquet (pictured) and NASA's Jeanette Epps and Mark Vande Hei, all of whom were selected as astronauts in 2009. The soon-to-be aquanauts will gain a great deal of experience from this mission that will aid them in future space assignments.
NASA
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