Organization:2022 European Space Agency Astronaut selection

From HandWiki
Short description: Human spaceflight selection

The 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut section is the currently-underway process of selecting new members of the European Astronaut Corps. It is the fourth European Space Agency (ESA) recruitment campaign and the first since 2008[1] and over 22 thousand applications were received.[2] Along with the 4-6 selected "career astronauts", the campaign also intends to recruit a "reserve pool" of astronauts who "will not be permanent ESA staff, but could have the opportunity to be selected for specific projects, as project astronauts."[1] The campaign also explicitly intends to recruit a person with a physical disability through the "parastronaut feasibility project" with the intention, but not guarantee, of spaceflight.[3][4][5]

Successful candidates will join the continuing corps of ESA astronauts, those selected in 2009, to perform long-duration spaceflight missions aboard the International Space Station, and "...will form part of the crew for the next missions to the moon in the late 2020s and through the 2030s"[6] – as part of the Artemis program.[5]

The announcement of the selected candidates will take place in Paris at the conclusion of the 2022 ESA Ministerial Council meeting on November 23.[7]

Recruitment

Template:External video

The recruitment campaign was announced at press conferences in February 2021.[8] Applications for the roles of "astronaut" and "astronaut (with a physical disability)" in the ESA Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration Programmes were accepted between 31 March and 18 June of that year.[9][10] The original deadline of May 28 was extended by three weeks due to Lithuania joining ESA as an associate-member of ESA, and its citizens therefore becoming eligible to apply, only a week before the original deadline.[11]

Criteria

Recruits may be a citizen of any ESA member or associate-member state.[note 1] Women were particularly encouraged to apply — in order to address the gender gap among astronauts[12] — as under 16% of applicants in the previous recruitment campaign were women.[3][13]

The minimum formal criteria included: being a citizen of an ESA member (or associate member) state under the age of 50; being between 150 and 190 cm tall (with possible exception under the parastronaut category); a "normal weight" BMI range; fluency in English and another language; a master's degree in the Natural Sciences, Medicine, Engineering, Mathematics/Computer Sciences (plus three years of professional experience), or accreditation as an experimental test pilot; a "hearing capacity of 25 dB or better per ear"; and a current class 2 pilot's medical certificate.[14][1] Upon selection, recruits would then receive training in "...the essentials of being an astronaut, survival skills and the Russian language, before moving on to robotics, navigation, maintenance and spacewalks", and then receiving mission-specific training.[15]

The types of disability considered for parastronaut program are lower limb deficiency (e.g. due to amputation or congenital limb deficiency), leg length difference, or short stature.[16]

Applicants

Applications from 22,523 candidates were received. They came from all eligible nationalities (including Lithuania), as well as 257 for the parastronaut program.[2] This represented a 2.8x increase in the number of applications received compared to the previous ESA astronaut selection process.[17] Almost five and a half thousand applicants (24%) were women – up from 1287 (15.3%) female applicants in the previous selection process.[17] Estonia had the highest proportion of female applicants, while Switzerland had the least.[2]

With over seven thousand applications the largest number of applicants were French citizens, almost twice as many as the next most common applicant citizenship, Germans. It was speculated that the popularity of the call for applicants among French citizens was due to Thomas Pesquet's "Alpha" mission to the ISS beginning while the application period was open.[18] More than a thousand applications were also received from British, Spanish, Italian and Belgian citizens, while less than 100 applications were received from Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Luxembourgers, and Slovenians.[19] ESA stressed that the eventual selection is "irrespective" of national funding of the organisation.[20]

Applicants by citizenship – total [note 2] (%♀)[2]
Austria Austria Belgium Belgium Czech Republic Czech Republic Denmark Denmark Estonia Estonia
466 (24.9%) 1007 (22.8%) 204 (18.1%) 145 (24.1%) 57 (38.6%)
Finland Finland France France Germany Germany Greece Greece Hungary Hungary
308 (18.8%) 7087 (23.2%) 3695 (28%) 281 (21.4%) 149 (22.8%)
Ireland Republic of Ireland Italy Italy Latvia Latvia Lithuania Lithuania Luxembourg Luxembourg
276 (28.3%) 1845 (18.8%) 83 (27.7%) 80 (23.8%) 64 (18.8%)
The Netherlands Netherlands Norway Norway Poland Poland Portugal Portugal Romania Romania
982 (30.1%) 391 (17.9%) 549 (23.3%) 320 (19.1%) 254 (21.7%)
Slovenia Slovenia Spain Spain Sweden Sweden Switzerland Switzerland United Kingdom United Kingdom
62 (21%) 1341 (22.2%) 281 (18.1%) 668 (17.8%) 2000 (28.5%)

Selection process

The selection process itself proceeds over six stages:[21]

  1. Screening of applicants was undertaken "on the basis of documents submitted, the application form and the screening questionnaire." It was initially expected that approximately 1500 (7%) applicants would be accepted through to stage 2.[18] By the conclusion of the 1st stage in January 2022, 1361 astronaut candidates and 27 parastronaut candidates were invited to the 2nd stage – including at least one man and one woman from every eligible nationality.[2][22]
  2. Initial tests consisted of "cognitive, technical, motor coordination and personality tests" administered by the German Aerospace Center in Hamburg.
  3. Assessment centre evaluation involved "additional psychometric tests, individual and group exercises and practical tests" administered at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne.
  4. Medical tests assessed "physical and psychological condition in view of long-duration astronaut missions"[23] administered in Cologne and the Toulouse Space Centre, France.
  5. Panel interview assesses "technical and behavioural competencies" including a background check.
  6. Final interview usually consists of "an interview with the ESA Director General."
Selection process statistics
Stage Applicants

(of which para.)

Completed %♀ % of previous Ref.
Screening 22,780 (257) June 2021 24% – [2]
Initial tests 1,388 (27) March 2022 39% 5.9% [2]
Assessment centre ~400 (?) May TBA ~28.8% [23]
Medical tests ~100 (?) June TBA ~25% [23]
Panel interview September
Final interview October
Confirmed 23 November 2022[7]
Astronauts
Parastronauts
Reserve pool

See also

  • NASA Astronaut Group 23

Notes

  1. ↑ At the time, ESA members nations were: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Associate-members were Slovenia, Latvia, and Lithuania.[1] [11]
  2. ↑ While many applicants hold multiple citizenships, for statistical purposes ESA categorises them according to their self-declared first citizenship.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Astronaut selection 2021-22 FAQs" (in en). https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA/ESA_Astronaut_Selection/Astronaut_selection_2021-22_FAQs. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 "Final figures show astronaut applicants from all ESA Member States" (in en). https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA/ESA_Astronaut_Selection/Final_figures_show_astronaut_applicants_from_all_ESA_Member_States. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "European Space Agency: Astronaut recruitment seeks disability applicants" (in en-GB). BBC News. 2021-02-16. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56072219. 
  4. ↑ "European Space Agency in bid to recruit female and disabled astronauts" (in en). 2021-02-16. https://www.euronews.com/2021/02/16/european-space-agency-in-bid-to-recruit-more-female-and-disabled-astronauts. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Reuters (2021-02-17). "Europe launches recruitment drive for female and disabled astronauts" (in en). http://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/17/europe-launches-recruitment-drive-for-female-and-disabled-astronauts. 
  6. ↑ "Hunt on to find British astronaut to go to the moon - here's what you need to qualify" (in en). https://news.sky.com/story/hunt-on-to-find-british-astronaut-to-go-to-the-moon-heres-what-you-need-to-qualify-12219644. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "ESA highlights in the last quarter of 2022" (in en). https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/ESA_highlights_in_the_last_quarter_of_2022. 
  8. ↑ "Watch live: ESA outlines its search for astronauts" (in en). https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Watch_live_ESA_outlines_its_search_for_astronauts. 
  9. ↑ "Astronaut Job Req ID: 12355" (in en-GB). 2021-03-31. https://jobs.esa.int/job/Porz-Wahn-Astronaut-ESOC/662874901/. 
  10. ↑ "Astronaut (with a physical disability) Job Req ID: 12354" (in en-GB). 2021-03-31. https://jobs.esa.int/job/Porz-Wahn-Astronaut-%28with-a-physical-disability%29-ESOC/662873001/. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "ESA extends deadline for astronaut applications as new Associate Member joins" (in en). 2021-05-21. http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA/ESA_Astronaut_Selection/ESA_extends_deadline_for_astronaut_applications_as_new_Associate_Member_joins. 
  12. ↑ "Women and people with disabilities 'often better adapted to spaceflight than men'" (in en-AU). 2021-02-17. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-17/european-space-agency-in-recruitment-drive/13162870. 
  13. ↑ "Applicants from all ESA Member States to become European astronauts" (in en). http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/European_Astronaut_Selection_2008/Applicants_from_all_ESA_Member_States_to_become_European_astronauts. 
  14. ↑ "Astronaut Application Handbook". European Space Agency. 2021-03-31. p. 19. https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/careers/ESA_Astrosel_Handbook.pdf. 
  15. ↑ O’Leary, Naomi. "European Space Agency launches search for new astronauts" (in en). The Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/european-space-agency-launches-search-for-new-astronauts-1.4486862. 
  16. ↑ "Parastronaut feasibility project". www.esa.int. https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA/ESA_Astronaut_Selection/Parastronaut_feasibility_project. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Wide range of applications for ESA's astronaut selection" (in en). https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA/ESA_Astronaut_Selection/Wide_range_of_applications_for_ESA_s_astronaut_selection. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Big numbers apply to be European astronauts" (in en-GB). BBC News. 2021-06-23. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57530395. 
  19. ↑ "ESA Astronaut Selection 2021: Preliminary Numbers". 2021-06-23. p. 3. https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/careers/ESA_AStroSel_2021_Preliminary_Numbers.pdf. 
  20. ↑ "European Space Agency: Astronaut recruitment drive for greater diversity" (in en-GB). BBC News. 2021-02-16. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56072219. 
  21. ↑ "Astronaut Application Handbook". European Space Agency. 2021-03-31. p. 13. https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/careers/ESA_Astrosel_Handbook.pdf. 
  22. ↑ "Astronaut selection: stage one complete" (in en). https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA/ESA_Astronaut_Selection/Astronaut_selection_stage_one_complete. 
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 "ESA astronaut selection in the final stages" (in en). https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/ESA_astronaut_selection_in_the_final_stages. 

External links




Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Organization:2022_European_Space_Agency_Astronaut_selection&oldid=2658754"