the aeronautical engineer Pablo Alvarez Fernandez (León, 1988) and also from Leon Sara Garcia (as substitute) have been selected as part of the new astronauts of the European Space Agency (ESA), and Michael López-Alegría (NASA) and Pedro Duque (ESA) are added to the history of Spain.
Álvarez is included in the components of the new class of astronauts, which will be able to participate in future manned flights, while García integrates a team with 12 substitute astronauts, who continue with their previous occupations until the ESA eventually requires their services.
“I feel that I am a European at heart, I have lived in several European countries”said Álvarez after being named a member of the ESA, in a promotion of only five members, selected from a total of 22,523 applications, most of which (17,126) were men.
In addition to Spanish, they have also been chosen the French Sophie Adenot, the British Rosemary Coogan, the Belgian Raphael Liégeois and the Swiss Marco Sieber. After the announcement, Josef Aschbacher, the director general of ESA, has indicated that the election process has been “very difficult, with very good candidates” and has pointed out that astronauts are made of a different paste because they love to be “under pressure “.
The announcement caps off the agency’s ministerial meeting, which began Tuesday and ends today. “Spain deserves to be part of the new generation of European astronauts”, said yesterday the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant. “(Our country) has made a strong commitment to the aerospace sector in recent years to lead space programs,” she added.
The new promotion of astronauts responds to a call launched in February 2021, the first in eleven years, which was massively successful.
What does it take to be an astronaut?
Applicants, coming from one of the 22 ESA member countries or an associated state, had to have a minimum of a master’s degree and three years of experience in mathematics, engineering, computer science or medicine, among other sectors, in addition to knowing English and a second language.
With the program for astronauts with disabilities, the European space agency wanted to enter a new era, in which to study the conditions and technologies that guarantee safe missions also for people with disabilities and in cooperation with ESA’s other commercial and international partners.
Source: Lasexta
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