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Stardust announces Stardust Ascend, its civilian astronaut training program

By Jason Michaud · September 25, 2026 · 1 min read

Stardust Ascend is civilian astronaut training and interplanetary readiness, announced from Houston. First missions in 2027; the first crew is named at Stardust 2026 in Seattle.

HOUSTON, 25 September 2026. Stardust Inc. today announced Stardust Ascend, its civilian astronaut training and interplanetary readiness program, from Houston, the home of human spaceflight. Stardust Ascend is the company's flagship human readiness initiative. It brings physical endurance, technical mastery, mental resilience and cultural understanding into a single training path: conditioning, systems, decision-making under stress, crew cohesion, and analog missions in extreme environments. The people who join it are Stardust Astronauts in Training. The standard is readiness. Every crew member meets medical and psychological baselines, completes the program's modules on schedule, and shows they can make calm, clear decisions under pressure. Training is delivered with a European astronaut training centre and with instructors who train astronauts today. The program is built on four values: unity, discipline, empathy and integrity. Stardust Ascend begins its first missions in 2027, with analog expeditions planned in the Arctic and Antarctica. The first crew and the mission calendar will be announced at Stardust 2026 in Seattle on 2 and 3 November 2026, in person and streamed worldwide. "Readiness is a standard, not a certificate," said Jason Michaud, CEO of Stardust. "We are in Houston this week among the people who fly, and we will say more in Seattle in November." ABOUT STARDUST Stardust Inc. is a Canadian company based in Iroquois Falls, Ontario. Stardust USA LLC is the US entity, and Seattle is its US home. Stardust Odyssey is the company's free education platform, open at any age, and Stardust Ascend is its training program. Stardust is not an accrediting body, and no government or agency accredits civilian astronaut training. MEDIA CONTACT Shifa Zahra Director of Space Biology & Strategic Partnerships, Stardust Inc. shifa.z@stardustinc.ca stardustinc.ca
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