For the first time since 2009, the European space agency Esa a new astronaut class selected. The French Sophie Adenot, the Spaniard Pablo Álvarez Fernández, the British Rosemary Coogan, the Belgian Raphaël Liégeois and the Swiss Marco Alain Sieber are to be trained as new astronauts. This was announced by ESA on Wednesday in Paris at the end of the ESA Council of Ministers meeting. Germans did not make it into the final selection. For the first time, however, there are two German women in the astronaut reserve, the biologist Amelie Schoenenwald and the former Bundeswehr fighter pilot Nicola Winter.
The new astronauts have gone through a rigorous selection process. Only citizens of one of the 22 ESA member states, which include 19 EU states as well as Switzerland, Norway and the United Kingdom, or an associated member, which at the time of the call for tenders were Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania, could apply. At least a master’s degree in a MINT subject or medicine is required, alternatively a completed test pilot training. In addition, at least three years of professional experience is expected, fluent English, ideally other languages. The age limit is 50 years, applicants must also be mentally and physically healthy, diseases are impractical in space.
22,500 valid applications were received in spring 2021, in the last round there were only 8,400. Almost 3,700 applications came from Germany alone, and more than 7,000 from France. And at least 24 percent of the applicants were women – in 2008 it was only 15 percent.
The list of Esa astronauts is getting longer
With the two now selected Sophie Adenot and Rosemary Coogan, ESA is extending its list of female astronauts quite significantly: only three European women had previously made it into the ESA astronaut corps. Only Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, who recently left the International Space Station, is currently active ISS returned. Claudie Haigneré was an astronaut for France’s space agency from 1985 and was then taken on by ESA, Marianne Merchez from Belgium was selected in 1992 but left the corps again without having flown into space.
For the first time, ESA was specifically looking for a “para-astronaut” with a physical disability for a feasibility study – 257 people applied for this. However, only people with a lower leg or foot prosthesis, a height of less than 130 centimeters or very different leg lengths were admitted. The 41-year-old Briton and former Paralympic sprinter John McFall has now prevailed. After a motorcycle accident at the age of 19, his right leg was amputated above the knee.
The new astronauts will now undergo a one-year basic training course at the European Astronaut Center EAC in Cologne, during which they will complete survival training and learn Russian, among other things. This is followed by advanced training, and only then do the astronauts begin to prepare for a specific mission. When they will finally fly into space, none of them knows yet. And maybe someone from the reserve will still get a chance: The German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, for example, did not initially make it into the 2009 selection, but was subsequently nominated in 2015 and flew for the first time in 2021 ISS.
It is also unclear where the new generation will fly. Because the future of ISS is still uncertain. Russia has announced that it will withdraw from the joint project after 2024. The US space agency Nasa feels obliged to keep the outpost in operation at least until 2030. But missions would also be possible Lunar Gatewaythe planned station in lunar orbit.