A NASA research pilot who received his master's degree from the University of Alabama and a former flight surgeon at Huntsville's Redstone Arsenal are among 12 new astronauts announced today by the U.S. space agency.

Bob Hines and Dr. Frank Rubio are among the five women and seven men tapped for this year's NASA astronaut class, which includes a physician, a surgeon, two geologists, three engineers, a senior manager for SpaceX and four test pilots.

Hines, a native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, lives in Houston where he is a research pilot at Johnson Space Center. Hines is also a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and received his master's degree in aerospace engineering from UA in 2010.

U.S. Army Major Rubio is a native of Miami, Florida and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy. Rubio served as a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot and flew more than 1,100 hours, including deployments to Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He went on to earn a Doctorate of Medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Rubio later served as a clinic supervisor, executive medicine provider and flight surgeon at Huntsville's Redstone Arsenal. At the time of his selection for the astronaut class, he was a battalion surgeon for the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in the U.S. Army.

NASA's new astronauts were announced today by Vice President Mike Pence and Robert Lightfoot, NASA's acting administrator.

Hines, Rubio and the rest of the astronaut class will report for duty in August. Training for the astronauts will take about two years.

Joining Hines and Rubio in this year's astronaut class are:

Kayla Barron of Annapolis, Maryland; U.S. Naval Academy graduate, master's in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge, England; currently serves as Flag Aide for the Superintendent of the Naval Academy

Zena Cardman of State College, Pennsylvania; National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow with a master's degree in marine science; currently completing a doctorate in geoscience at Pennsylvania State University

Air Force Lt. Col. Raja Chari of Lancaster, California; U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, U.S. Navy test pilot school graduate; master's in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Dominick of Wheat Ridge, Colorado; Navy test pilot school, master's in systems engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School; Navy strike fighter squadron 115

Warren "Woody" Hoburg of Boston; assistant professor in aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California-Berkeley

Jonathan Kim of Newton, Massachusetts; resident physician for Partners Healthcare at Massachusetts General Hospital; active duty reserve with the U.S. Navy; doctorate of medicine from Harvard

Robb Kulin of Redondo Beach, California; senior manager for flight reliability at SpaceX; masters in materials science; Ph.D. in engineering from the University of California-San Diego

Marine Maj. Jasmin Moghbeli of Yuma, Arizona; quality assurance and avionics officer; master's in aerospace engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School; graduate of the U.S. Navy Test Pilot school

Loral O'Hara of Woods Hole, Massachusetts; research engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; master's degree in propulsion and fluid Dynamics from Purdue University

Jessica Watkins of Pasadena, California; post-doctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology; Ph.D. in geology from the University of California-Los Angeles