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Great news for gender and race equality! The new class of NASA astronauts is 50% female for the first time in history. The class of eight astronauts are an equal mix of men and women, but is also made up of a variety of racial backgrounds making it the most diverse astronaut class in history. Let's take a look at the new astronauts.

All good things must end, it's said. As a perfect example of this, Chris Hadfield can't stay in space forever. He's set to return to the planet late tomorrow, May 13th, and it's kind of a bittersweet time for everyone that's grown to love his updates from the International Space Station. There's something magical about the way he's been able to rekindle personal interest in space over the course of his stay. There's a new, and likely final, video from Hadfield sharing his mission reflections, and it may or may not have made me tear up a bit.

Do you want to be one of the first astronauts to go to Mars? Are you ready to give up on life here on Earth and do your duty helping mankind establish a place for itself among the stars? Well, tune in today at noon EDT where you can find out what it will take to get yourself a one-way ticket to the Red Planet. That's when the Mars One team will make the official announcement detailing their astronaut selection program, and you can watch it live with us right here

Yesterday, we listened to William Shatner talk about life on the International Space Station (ISS) with astronaut Chris Hadfield, and it was pretty great. Why should Kirk have all the fun, though? Chances are you've got some things you'd like to know about what it's like to be an astronaut, too. Well, now is your chance to pick the brains of people whose lives are more awesome than yours, because they live in space, because later this month, NASA will be hosting a Google Hangout live from the ISS, and they'll be answering your questions while they do. So if you've ever wanted to know what flavor of astronaut ice cream is always left over after a mission or who the worst snorer in Earth orbit is, this is your time.

As I get older, every dream job I ever had as a kid seems to lose some of its shine in the cold light of day. Paleontologists, for example, spend much of their time filling out paperwork rather than digging up fossils, and few of them will ever clone and ride their own dinosaur. Being an astronaut, though? It's still an amazing gig that always makes me wish I was a better, smarter person who someone would shoot into space. In this cartoon from Ted Education, astronaut and former SkyLab commander Jerry Carr talks about rockets that were struck by lightning, the nail-biting anticipation of waiting to see colleagues return from the dark side of the moon, and why early astronauts had to know how to cook a snake -- just in case. Just check out the video below if for some reason you need a reminder of why you should be very jealous of astrnoauts.

Yesterday we brought you the heartbreaking news that rather than giving you Fantastic Four style super powers, the cosmic rays that astronauts could be exposed to during space travel instead could potentially damage your brain. On the bright side, though, space travel will also make you a little bit taller, so it's got that going for it. It's not much taller, mind you, and the height boost is only temporary, but it you've got a couple of brain cells to spare... hey, it's a trade-off we'd make, because going into space would be amazing.

A training seminar for astronauts from around the world ended up being more fruitful than anyone imagined earlier this year, as participants turned up an never-before-seen species of crustacean during their journey. The new species was discovered during the course of the European Space Agency's CAVES training program, which sends teams of astronauts into unusual environments to hone their skills in field geology, meteorology, and cataloging new species -- so you have to think that at least one of those objectives went down as a clear success this trip.

Up until now, the various tidbits and doodads that NASA astronauts and other staff didn't officially have to return have existed in a kind of gray legal area. The ownership of these potential keepsakes has been debated back and forth, with NASA attempting to stop the sale of things like notebooks in the past, but now we finally have an official answer: Anything that would have been disposed of or considered expendable by NASA is free game and owned by the people that currently have it. Maybe we'll get to eventually bid on Buzz Aldrin's toothbrush!

Despite their (entirely deserved) hero status, astronauts are just everyday people like you and me. They put their pants space suits on one leg at a time, and have to fill out U.S. Customs and Immigration forms when returning from the moon. In what is perhaps the best application of bureaucracy to date, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins declared all their moon rocks and moon dust when they arrived in Hawaii after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. It was a joke, though the astronauts did spend three weeks in isolation after their return over fears they might have brought lunar germs back with them. However, Reddit tells us that this wouldn't be the only tongue-in-cheek moment for the space program. After the dramatic events during the Apollo 13 mission, Rockwell received an invoice from Northrop Grumman. It seems that since the Grumman-made lunar module was responsible for bringing the crippled, Rockwell-built command module back to Earth, it was only fair that Rockwell pay for the tow. Great moments in American history, folks. Read on below, for a closer look at the Apollo 11 immigration form.

After receiving some "playful" 80's-era footage (on VHS!) from NASA about the day-to-day lives of astronauts in space, NPR decided to have some fun themselves and re-edited the video as an instructional video of sorts. With commentary from the crews of STS-9, 41C, 41D, 51A, 51D, and 51F, it's a look at the lighter side of space travel, complete with rotating banana. (NPR via Universe Today)

Now that the Shuttle program is over, photographer Neil DaCosta and art director Sara Philips decided to show the world what astronauts have to look forward to now that there's no program to put them into space. Suicide, if you're wondering. The astronaut now has nothing to look forward to other than suicide.

A dark comedy project, or at least, clearly, a dark something project, dubbed Astronaut Suicides, depicts just that -- an astronaut dressed up in full gear, committing suicide in various ways. Suicide's no joke, so we'll let you be the judge of DaCosta and Philip's project, but seeing an astronaut dressed in full gear, helmet and all, with his or her head shoved into an oven, should at least provoke some kind of feeling of absurdity. Head on past the break to see some more astronaut suicides.

Expedition 25 flight engineer Scott Kelly shows us the view from the International Space Station's cupola. Nope, no mutant aliens flying around in the distance.

(via LiveLeak)

Even if you're not a Twitter nut, astronauts are some of the most worthwhile people you can follow on Twitter. Let's face it: while they're interesting people in their own right, being able to send never-before-seen pictures directly from space is a pretty good way to get popular fast. Though you could track them down yourself, we thought it'd be helpful to compile a list of astronauts on Twitter who are currently active: