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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Space travel never looked so good.
NASA announced Friday it received a record number of applicants — some 18,300 — for its next astronaut class. That's more than double the previous record of 8,000 for the first space shuttle astronaut class in 1978. This time, NASA hit social media hard to promote the openings.
The odds of getting picked are small; only eight to 14 Americans will be chosen. NASA expects it will take 1½ years to whittle down the list. Candidates need to be U.S. citizens with a bachelor's degree in science, math or engineering.
"It's not at all surprising to me that so many Americans from diverse backgrounds want to personally contribute to blazing the trail on our journey to Mars," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former space shuttle commander, said in a statement.
Like the eight-member Class of 2013, the future astronauts will train to fly to the International Space Station on capsules under development by SpaceX and Boeing, as well as on NASA's Orion spacecraft intended for deep-space exploration. NASA aims to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.
The two-month application period closed Thursday. The first astronaut class was the Mercury 7 chosen in 1959.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is hoping that caring mentors will help stop students from skipping school.
The Obama administration announced plans Friday to connect more than 1 million students who miss major amounts of school time with mentors in hopes of turning that around.
Officials say that as many as 7.5 million children miss a month or more of school each year, putting them at risk of falling behind and dropping out. Pairing mentors with some of those students can stop children from risking their futures, said Broderick Johnson, chairman of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force.
Part of the My Brother's Keeper program, the Success Mentors Initiative will launch in 10 cities: Austin, Boston, Columbus, Denver, Miami-Dade, New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, San Antonio and Seattle.
"Missing school means missing out on the only chance of success that most children have," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said.
The MBK Success Mentors Initiative, a partnership between the Department of Education and Johns Hopkins University, will pair trained adults with children to meet with them three times a week. It will start with 250,000 students sixth through ninth grade in school districts with low incomes and high absenteeism levels and expand to kindergarten through 12th grade in five years.
Chronic absenteeism is defined by the administration as missing at least 10 percent, or about 18 days, of days in a school year.
"By the time you get to high school and you've missed a month of school, you're on the track to dropping out," said Robert Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University's Everyone Graduates Center.
The Ad Council will launch a multimillion dollar anti-absenteeism ad campaign as well, targeting parents of students in kindergarten through eighth grade with billboards, public service announcements and a website.
CHICAGO (AP) — The debate over whether Canadian-born Ted Cruz is eligible to be president is moving from the campaign trail to the courtroom.
Lawsuits challenging the Texas Republican's eligibility for the ballot have been filed in recent weeks by residents in states including Illinois, New York and Alabama who argue he can't be president because he's not a natural-born citizen. Fellow GOP candidate Donald Trump also has threatened to sue over the issue.
Cruz and some legal experts say he's eligible because his mother was a U.S. citizen when he was born.
Lawrence Joyce, a pharmacist and lawyer from Poplar Grove, Illinois, said Friday he filed suit in Chicago because he wants to avoid what he called a potential "nightmare scenario."
He said he fears if Cruz becomes the GOP nominee, Democrats will get him kicked off the ballot in some states or Cruz will be forced to drop out, and establishment Republicans will replace him with a more moderate candidate, such as Jeb Bush or Chris Christie.
Joyce said he's backing Ben Carson but is acting "strictly on my own."
Cook County Judge Maureen Ward Kirby set a hearing on a motion to dismiss the suit filed by Cruz's lawyer for March 1 — the first day Joyce said he'd be able to get off work to return to court. By then, ballots for Illinois' March 15 primary will be printed and early voting underway.
Asked about his eligibility during a CNN town hall this week, Cruz said by law he's been a U.S. citizen since the day he was born.
"There will still be some that try to work political mischief on it, but as a legal matter, this is clear and straightforward," Cruz said.
The Indiana Election Commission on Friday rejected a challenge to whether Cruz may remain on the state's May 3 primary ballot.
Cruz won a similar ballot challenge in New Hampshire in November.
Associated Press writer Tom Davies in Indianapolis contributed.