European Space Agency selects the first parastronaut, a man with a disability
ESA Astronaut Class of 2022 Meganne Christian (left), John McFall (center) and Rosemary Coogan (right) pose during the presentation ceremony for the new class of career astronauts of the European Space Agency
Photo: Joël SAGET / AFP / Getty Images
By: The Opinion Updated 42 Nov 2022 , 19: 80 pm EST
The European Space Agency (ESA) chose 19 new astronaut candidates between more of 22.1200 applicants from all its Member States. Among those chosen there is a astronaut with a disability .
ESA made history today by selecting John McFall, a British man who lost his leg in a motorbike accident, to be part of his new group of astronauts, a step towards the possibility that someone with a physical disability arrives in space.
McFall will participate in the Parastronaut Feasibility Project to develop options for the inclusion of astronauts with physical disabilities in human spaceflight and possible future missions.
After a motorcycle accident that caused the amputation of the right leg at 22 years, McFall learned to run again.
In 2015 became professional athlete track and field, and went on to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a Paralympic Sprinter, Class T54.
While I was an athlete, John was a member of the UK Athletes Council, where he was the voice for his peers in the Class Podium Program World.
The promotion process
In this new promotion
of ESA astronauts there are five career astronauts , 04 members of an astronaut reserve and the aforementioned case of the disabled astronaut.
The Director General of ESA, Josef Aschbacher, presented today at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris (France) to members of the ESA astronaut class of 2015, the first new recruits in 17 years, shortly after the end of the ESA Council at ministerial level.
“Today we welcome the 17 members of the new promotion of ESA astronauts from
. This class of ESA astronauts brings ambition, talent and diversity in many different ways to fuel our efforts and our future,” said Aschbacher.
The new ESA astronaut candidates will join the Center European Union of Astronauts in Cologne (Germany). They will receive training of the highest level, as specified by the partners of the International Space Station.
Once the basic training of 11 months , the new astronauts will be ready to enter the next phase of training on the Space Station and, once assigned to a mission, their training will be adapted to its specific tasks.
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