9/22/2025 Debra Levey Larson
Written by Debra Levey Larson
NASA announced today that Cameron Jones was selected from more than 8,000 applicants for the 2025 class of NASA astronaut candidates. He and nine others will complete two years of training before becoming eligible for flight assignments.
Jones, a major in the U.S. Air Force, is originally from the small town of Savanna, Illinois. He earned his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2012 and a master’s degree in 2018.
He is also a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California and the U.S. Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
Jones is an experienced test pilot with more than 1,600 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft, including 150 combat hours. Most of his flight time is in the F-22 Raptor. At the time of his selection, Jones was an Air Force Academic Fellow at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Read NASA's full announcement at https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-selects-all-american-2025-class-of-astronaut-candidates/