There are six new astronauts of the European Space Agency, selected from over 20,000 applications: none of them will carry the tricolor flag on their shoulders like Samantha Cristoforetti or Luca Parmitano.
However, the new class, the first after that of 2019, is joined by two Italians among the 12 reserves: they are Andrea Patassa and Anthea Comellini. They too will work with ESA and will be able to hope for a training and space mission opportunity because, as explained by ESA director general, Josef Aschbacher, “they are all equally capable but unfortunately we don’t have 20 flight opportunities” . Among them, for the first time in history, there is also a parastronaut, his name is John McFall, he comes from the United Kingdom: at the age of 19, his right leg was amputated following an accident; now, at 41, he is an orthopedic and trauma surgeon. One you wish you had by your side on a mission to another planet.
As Cristoforetti recalled in the past when commenting on this choice, “the key is technology, in Space we are all disabled. The parastronauts will be the ones who open the door, or the hatch, of a spaceship even further to those who, only 10 years ago, could only dream of Space. And to the development of new medical and technological solutions, which from the space sector can also affect everyday life”.
The new class
The six new astronauts who will immediately take service are between 31 and 41 years old, have university degrees and careers in scientific disciplines, some already have experience in command of aircraft, there is an emergency doctor specializing in robotic surgery and a neuroscientist .
Sophie Adenot40 years old, French, graduated in Engineering in Toulouse, specialized in flight dynamics of airplanes and space vehicles, studied at MIT in Boston and then enlisted in the French Air Force, now she is a helicopter test pilot with over 3,000 hours of flight with 22 different vehicles.
Pablo Alvarez FernandezSpanish, 34 years old, aeronautical engineer, worked at Airbus as a structural engineer and on the Rosalind Franklin rover, the robot of the Exomars mission.
Rosemary Coogan31 years old, physicist and astronomer, since 2019 she has been working at the French Space Agency (Cnes), where she was in charge of the mission of the Euclid telescope and the analysis of the images of the James Webb Space Telescope.
Raphael Liegeois, Belgian, born in 1988, biomedical engineer, neuroscientist with a master’s degree in Physics. In 2015 he completed his PhD in Neuroscience in Liège, where he developed a mathematical model of brain function. He teaches in Switzerland, where he follows the study of the brain and the dynamics of diseases.
Marco Alain sieve, born in Switzerland in 1989, Doctor of Emergency Medicine with a thesis on robotic surgery. After serving as a medical officer in the Swiss Army, he worked in emergency medicine in Bern and as of 2020 works as a rescue doctor of the helicopter personnel.
Megan Christian he has 4 citizenships, in addition to the British and Italian ones, also New Zealand and Australian. She was born in 1987, she has a degree in Industrial Chemistry and worked for one winter as weather manager at the Concordia station, in Antarctica, for the CNR and the scientific research program in Antarctica.
The reserves, Anthea and Andrea
For the first time, a group of reservists has also been chosen, who will be able to collaborate with ESA but not as active astronauts, but to take over if there are opportunities. They are, Aschbacher said, fully-fledged astronauts. Anthea Comellini, born in 1992, graduated cum laude in Aerospace Engineering at the Milan Polytechnic, PhD in Autonomous Navigation for space rendezvous. You worked at Esoc (European Space Operation center in Darmstadt, Germany) for the navigation operations of the probes BepiColombo, Gaia, Mars Express, and the Martian satellite TGO of the Exomars mission. Since 2022 you have been working at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes in research and development. She has a first aid and rescue diploma and a private flying license.
Andrea Patassa was born in 1991, graduated from Federico II of Naples in Aeronautical Sciences. He participated in the Euro-NATO test pilot training program at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas and received his military pilot license from the Italian Air Force in 2017. In 2022 he became an experimental test pilot at the USAF Test Pilot School at the Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
In 2008, the year of the last European selection from which our Parmitano and Cristoforetti came out, applications were 8413, just 16% were women, this time the percentage rose to 23.9% out of over 22,500 applications. An explosion that reflects the great interest that Space has been able to attract thanks to the role of space agencies and the commitment to disseminate and promote scientific subjects, still practically indispensable in order to be able to hope to take off at the head of a rocket, unless be a top gun. Among the requirements for admission was a master’s degree (or higher) in Natural Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Earth, Atmospheric or Oceanic Sciences), Medicine, Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science or, alternatively , the test pilot certificate.
But Space, apparently, fascinates the French much more than the Italians. 7137 applications arrived from France, 3700 from Germany, 1979 from the United Kingdom. From Italy, fourth, 1860. Our country has two astronauts still active, Cristoforetti and Parmitano (but there were 4 until not long ago, with Paolo Nespoli and Roberto Vittori).
The new class of astronauts is the one that sees the Moon and maybe even Mars on the horizon, they will work side by side with their older brothers in training for the missions that in a few years time will bring our civilization back to the soil of our satellite natural, never touched for exactly half a century. The next explorers and (perhaps) the next settlers to establish a permanent extraterrestrial base where it will be possible not only to explore, but to live for more or less long periods.