COLOGNE, Germany – Last year, five fit and academically superior men and women were centrifuged, submerged for hours, temporarily deprived of oxygen, taught how to camp in the snow and educated in physiology, anatomy, astronomy, meteorology, robotics and Russian. .
On Monday, the five Europeans and one Australian completed basic training with a new title: astronaut.
At a ceremony in Cologne, Germany, ESA added the five newcomers to its corps of astronauts eligible for missions to the International Space Station, bringing the total to 11.
ESA has negotiated with NASA three places on future Artemis lunar missions, although these places will likely go to the most experienced astronauts, according to ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher. The agency is also providing the service module for the Orion crew capsule. ESA depends on NASA and others to get its astronauts into space.
It is only the fourth class of astronauts since 1978 for the 22-nation agency, chosen from 22,500 applicants. Another twelve were selected as reservists, but were not sent to basic training. Not surprisingly, all five have resumes filled with advanced scientific and medical degrees, military training, experience flying planes, helicopters, gliders and balloons, and “leisure” activities such as rowing, diving, hiking, skydiving, cycling, sailing and kayak.
The group formed “a very good team” devoid of personal rivalry, Aschbacher said. “I told them, one of you will fly first and the other will fly last, and they accepted that, of course, but from the heart, not just lip service. … the team spirit is very pronounced.”
Sophie Adenot, a helicopter test pilot with the French Air Force, said the group was “a fantastic crew and a fantastic team”. The moment that impressed her most was exiting the airlock for an underwater spacewalk simulation, when the instructor said, “Welcome to space.”
“And for me it was mind-blowing, I had goosebumps. … In a few years I will be in space, not in the water with safety divers.”
When she was a little girl and dreamed of space travel, “I couldn’t count how many people told me that dream would never come true. You have unrealistic dreams and it will never happen. … Listen to yourself and don’t listen to people who don’t believe in you.”
In addition to Adenot, the ESA class consists of:
— Pablo Alvarez Fernandez, Spanish aeronautical engineer who worked on the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover destined for a joint mission with Russia that was suspended after the invasion of Ukraine;
— Rosemary Coogan, British astronomer who researched radiation emissions from black holes;
— Raphael Liegeois, Belgian biomedical engineer and neuroscientist who researched degenerative diseases of the nervous system and also pilots hot air balloons and gliders;
— Marco Alain Sieber, a Swiss emergency physician who achieved the rank of sergeant as a paratrooper during his service in the Swiss army.
The group was joined by Katherine Bennell-Pegg from Australia, who received training under a cooperation agreement between Australia and ESA. She remains an employee of the Australian Space Agency. It is up to the Australian agency to find a way for her to travel in space.
The year-long basic training included preparation for the harsh environment encountered in space. They were exposed to several times the force of gravity in a centrifuge and spent hours underwater using scuba gear to float around mock-ups of space station modules to simulate working in zero gravity.
They learned to recognize symptoms of hypoxia, or lack of oxygen, by experiencing them themselves in a low-pressure chamber. Survival training included dealing with possible splashes in the ocean and staying warm in winter while waiting to be recovered in case the landing went off course. In addition, academic work on scientific topics and learning about the space station’s modules and equipment came.
Intensive Russian language is still part of the program, although ESA has suspended work with Russia, except for the space station, where one of the working languages is Russian.
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