Is NASA prepping a 17 year old to become first human on Mars?

A headline from a website called Scicademy says that NASA is "prepping" a 17-year-old "to become the first human on Mars," but NASA says it has no official connection to the teen mentioned in the article.

"Alyssa Carson is a name people will remember," says the story posted July 17, 2018, under the headline "NASA prepping 17-year-old Alyssa Carson to become first human on Mars."

Carson certainly has her sights set on space. She has attended several space camps, according to media reports, and her Twitter name is @NASABlueberry1. Carson told the Baton Rouge, La., television station WVLA that NASA is "definitely encouraging and supportive of what I'm wanting to do, because they're encouraging of everyone who wants to become an astronaut."

Carson’s father, Bert Carson, said in an article for Teen Vogue that private groups are also considering her into space. "If we can find a mission for her in the next two years, she will be the first kid in the world to go to space," Bert Carson said. "If we can get it together before she’s 20, she’ll be the first teenager."

The Scicademy headline, however, goes further suggesting NASA is prepping Carson for a trip to Mars. NASA spokesman Sean Potter told us that NASA "has no official ties to Alyssa Carson."

A headline claims NASA is "presping 17-year-old Alyssa Carson to become first human on Mars."

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Rush Limbaugh

stated on March 6, 2014 in a segment on 'The Rush Limbaugh Show'

President Barack Obama shut down NASA space flights and turned the agency "into a Muslim outreach department."

Carson certainly wants to go into space. And that may happen. But she has no official connection to NASA.

We rate this claim Mostly False.

Erasmo Passaro is a rising sophomore attending St. Petersburg High School who is working with PolitiFact as part of the Poynter Institute’s MediaWise program.