U.S. Air Force Maj. Adam Fuhrmann ’11 was one of 10 individuals chosen from a field of 8,000 applicants for the 2025 U.S. astronaut candidate class, NASA announced in a live ceremony on Sept. 22.
This is NASA’s 24th class of astronaut candidates since the first Mercury 7 astronauts were chosen in 1959. Upon completion of his training, Fuhrmann will be the 45th MIT graduate to become a flight-eligible astronaut.
“As test pilots we don't do anything on our own, we work with amazing teams of engineers and maintenance professionals to plan, simulate, and execute complex and sometimes risky missions in aircraft to collect data and accomplish a mission, all while assessing risk and making smart calls as a team to do that as safely as possible,” Fuhrmann said at NASA’s announcement ceremony in Houston, Texas. “I'm happy to try to bring some of that experience to do the same thing with the NASA team and learn from everyone at Johnson Space Center how to apply those lessons to human spaceflight.”
His class now begins two years of training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston that includes instruction and skills development for complex operations aboard the International Space Station, Artemis missions to the moon, and beyond. Training includes robotics, land and water survival, geology, foreign language, space medicine and physiology, and more, while also conducting simulated spacewalks and flying high-performance jets.
From MIT to astronaut training
Fuhrmann, 35, is from Leesburg, Virginia, and has accumulated more than 2,100 flight hours in 27 aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35. He has served as a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and experimental test pilot for nearly 14 years and deployed in support of operations Freedom’s Sentinel and Resolute Support, logging 400 combat hours.
Fuhrmann holds a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT and master’s degrees in flight test engineering and systems engineering from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and Purdue University, respectively. While at MIT, he was a member of Air Force ROTC Detachment 365 and was selected as the third-ever student leader of the Bernard M. Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program (GEL) in spring 2011.
“We are tremendously proud of Adam for this notable accomplishment, and we look forward to following his journey through astronaut candidate school and beyond,” says Leo McGonagle, GEL founding and executive director.
“It’s always a thrill to learn that one of our own has joined NASA's illustrious astronaut corps,” says Julie Shah, head of the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the H.N. Slater Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics. “Adam is Course 16’s 19th astronaut alum. We take very seriously the responsibility to provide the very best aerospace engineering education, and it's so gratifying to see that those fundamentals continue to set individuals from our community on the path to becoming an astronaut.”
Learning to be a leader at MIT
McGonagle recalls that Fuhrmann was a very early participant in GEL from 2009 to 2011.
“The GEL Program was still in its infancy during this time and was in somewhat of a fragile state as we were seeking to grow and cement ourselves as a viable MIT program. As the fall 2010 semester was winding down, it was evident that the program needed an effective GEL2 student leader during the spring semester, who could lead by example and inspire fellow students and who was an example of what right looks like. I knew Adam was already an emerging leader as a senior cadet in MIT’s Air Force ROTC Detachment, so I tapped him for the role of spring student leader of GEL,” said McGonagle.
Fuhrmann initially sought to decline this role, citing his time as a leader in ROTC. But McGonagle, having led the Army ROTC Program prior to GEL, felt that the GEL Student Leader role would challenge and develop Fuhrmann in other ways. In GEL, he would be charged with leading and inspiring students from a broad background of experiences, and focused exclusively on leading within engineering contexts, while engaging with engineering industry organizations.
“GEL needed strong student leadership at this time, so Adam took on the role, and it ended up being a win-win for both him and the program. He later expressed to me that the experience challenged him in ways that he hadn’t anticipated and complemented his Air Force ROTC leadership development. He was grateful for the opportunity, and the program stabilized and grew under Adam’s leadership. He was the right student at the right time and place,” said McGonagle.
Fuhrmann has remained connected to the GEL program. He asked McGonagle to administer his oath of commissioning into the U.S. Air Force, with his family in attendance, at the historic Bunker Hill Monument in Boston. “One of my proudest GEL memories,” said McGonagle, who is a former U.S. Army Lt. Colonel.
Throughout his time in service which included overseas deployments, Fuhrmann has actively participated in Junior Engineering Leader’s Roundtable leadership labs (ELLs) with GEL students, and he has kept in touch with his GEL2 cohort.
“Adam’s GEL2 cohort meets informally once or twice a year, usually via Zoom, to share and discuss professional challenges, lessons learned, life stories, to keep in touch with each other. This small but excellent group of GEL alum is committed to staying connected and supporting one another, as part of the broader GEL community,” said McGonagle.
