The European Space Agency presented its 17 new astronauts in Paris today. Six of them will be included in ESA’s astronaut group at the beginning of next year, the rest will receive basic training and remain in reserve for a possible later need.
There are no Finns in the group, but at the very end of the selection there were still two Finnish candidates. According to the representatives of ESA, citizenship was not considered when making the choice, but in the last stage above all social abilities decided.
The new professional astronauts are Sophie Adeno from France, Pablo Alvarez Fernandez from Spain, Rosemary Coogan from Great Britain, Raphaël Liegeois from Belgium, Marco Sieber from Switzerland as well John McFall From Great Britain.
McFall is a para-athlete and researcher who is part of the team as part of a study to find out how a person with limited mobility can function as an astronaut.
– Astronaut Tim Peake has often said that we are all handicapped to some extent in the weightlessness of space, McFall told at the announcement event.
– We don’t know if the prosthesis is harmful or even beneficial in space. The purpose of the para-astronaut program is to investigate this issue.
Kuusikko is now undergoing basic astronaut training at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany, as well as in other countries participating in space station cooperation.
There is no information yet on the dates of their space flights, as they will be decided later and before the flight, the astronauts will undergo special training.
In principle, the first of the new astronauts can reach space around 2026 at the earliest.
The rest of the presented astronauts are so-called reserve astronauts, but they could also be called gig astronauts. After a short basic training, they will continue in their current jobs, but can later either be invited to join the group of “real” astronauts, or they can only be assigned to a specific flight to carry out scientific or technical studies.
These are Italian Andrea Patassa From Italy, Austrian Carmen PosnigFrench Arnaud ProstGerman Amelie SchoenenwaldSpanish Sara García AlonsoBritish Meganne ChristianItalian Anthea ComelliniCzech Republic Ales SvobodaPolish Sławosz UznańskiSwedish Marcus Wandt and German Nicola Winter.
Wandt is therefore the only Nordic in the group. He assures that he is not at all disappointed with his position as a reserve astronaut.
– I already signed a contract with ESA to join the training and of course I hope that I will get to space soon. If more space flights are made all the time, as it seems now, then I am quite confident.
According to Wandt, just going through the tests was a great experience, and he expects a lot from his future education.
Wandt is participating in Tiedeykkönen’s astronaut program broadcast on Friday, December 2.
The people officially announced today are only astronaut candidates. They can use the honorable title of astronaut only after their training.
Met gang
As of now, the European Space Agency’s Esa astronaut group includes seven active members. Six of them were selected in 2009 and four have already made two space flights.
A very like-minded group trained together and have become known for their wit and kindness. They use the name “The Shenanigans” for their group, which could be translated as a group that makes pranks.
German Alexander Gerstthe Italians Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitanoand pregnant Thomas Pesquet are already veterans who have a good chance of getting to the next hearing.
Danish Andreas Mogensen is currently training for its second spaceflight in Houston. The oldest of the bunch, a Brit Timothy Peakemay not make another flight.
German Matthias Maurer others were included later, so he has not yet flown more than once. He was one of the finalists in 2009, but was not selected then.
Now the group needs new blood – especially when in the near future we can see more and more space flights as they become more affordable and commonplace.
In addition to long flights, short gigs will soon be made to the International Space Station. For them, Esa is now including gig workers in its astronaut group in addition to professional astronauts.
They are being trained as astronauts and may be used on individual flights from time to time, but they are not part of Esa’s astronaut team.
One and a half years of compression
Astronaut search this time (you will switch to another service) started in 2021.
More than 22,500 applications were sent, Esa says (you switch to another service). The selection process, which progressed in stages, culminated in the fall, when the persons announced today were selected from the dozen who were fully fit to be space pilots.
The purpose was to recruit 4–6 new astronauts to the actual ESA astronaut group, as well as an unspecified number of project astronauts who will receive astronaut training and will make short, gig-like space flights.
This division reflects the ongoing shift in the astronaut’s job as flying into space becomes more affordable and convenient.
Unprejudiced, the application was also open to people with physical limitations, because, for example, using a prosthetic leg does not hinder activities as an astronaut. There were 257 applications for this category.
In the previous application process in 2008–09, Finns were also involved for the first time, because the application was extended to cover all member countries of the organization.
Applications were sent from Finland at that time 336 songs (you switch to another service). Let’s continue Jussi Lehtonen ranked Among the top 10 applicants (you will switch to another service), but was not selected. This time too, Finland made it to the final stretch, but did not finish.
Finland has been a full member of Esa since 1995, but along with Estonia, has been the only member country that has not participated in Esa’s manned space flight program.
This will change now, when the ministerial meeting in Paris Finland announced its participation (you will switch to another service) in the future also for manned space flights.
Published by the Finnish Ministry of Labor and Economy in February in the expert report (you switch to another service) it was proposed that Finland participate in Esa’s manned spaceflight and space research E3P program.
Participation enables Finland to have wider access to projects related to the International Space Station, hearings and a space station planned for lunar orbit, as well as Mars flights, the report says.
Strongly growing space start-up companies and research expertise in international projects are counted as Finland’s strengths.
More important than getting your own astronaut on board is participating in the manned spaceflight program. It can bring orders to Finnish research institutes and companies.
In addition to sending humans into space, the program includes a lot of robotics and probes that are used to support the activities of astronauts in space or on the surface of the Moon.
Finnish telecommunications know-how would certainly also be useful in future hearings, because ESA is planning to orbit the Moon and build a telecommunications network on its surface for future expeditions and commercial operators.