Pablo Álvarez, 35, from Leon, graduated today as an astronaut from the European Space Agency (ESA), the first that Spain has had since Pedro Duque, in 1993. The ceremony was held at the Astronaut Preparation Center of ESA, in Cologne (Germany), where the candidates have spent most of their time during the intense training of the last year.
Along with Álvarez, British physicist Rosemary Coogan, a specialist in black holes, has gained her new astronaut wings; the French engineer Sophie Adenot; the Belgian Raphaël Liégeois, biomedical engineer; and the Swiss Marco Sieber, Space Force paratrooper and doctor. This new generation of European astronauts, the first since 2009, has been joined by the Australian Katherine Bennell-Pegg, who will be the first woman to achieve this title in her country. In an interview published on Sunday in EL PAÍS, Álvarez acknowledged that he was prepared for any mission that may be assigned to him, but that “it would be very human to be afraid at some point.”
The European astronauts were chosen a year and a half ago from more than 22,500 candidates after several rounds of theoretical and practical tests in which examiners tried to push them to the limit to understand if they have the necessary psychological capacity to be able to travel to space.
“It is a historic day for all of us,” said Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency. “With this new class, the number of European astronauts reaches 11, who come from eight European countries, which emphasizes our international essence,” highlighted the Austrian naturalist. The head of the agency has assured that the five new astronauts will go to space before 2030, before the planned retirement of the International Space Station. The first of them will receive their mission in May of this year to travel to the ISS in 2026.
The German astronaut Alexander Gerst has been in charge of perpetuating the tradition and baptizing this new group of astronauts with a nickname chosen by the members of the previous class. “In recent months we have seen you jumping from one place to another many times a day to get to your classes,” said Gerst. “Also, someone has heard you say that you would love to jump on the moon, so we are going to call you the jumpers,” added the German.
Álvarez was the second to receive his new patch in which the wings are already spread, symbolizing that he is now an astronaut, and he received a diploma from Aschbacher.
“I remember perfectly that I was five years old and living in my small town in the mountains in Spain,” Álvarez explained about his vocation in response to questions from journalists during the ceremony. “They told me that only 12 people had walked on the Moon. They seemed very few to me and that day I decided that I wanted to be an astronaut. Then I made the mistake of stopping believing it was possible. It was not until I saw the ESA announcement that they were looking for new astronauts that that determination returned to my head and I understood that I had to apply,” he added.
If this new class remains active in the coming decades, they will probably also have the possibility of traveling to the Moon, both to the Gateway orbital station that is going to begin construction, and to the surface of the satellite.
For the first time, ESA has also selected 12 reserve astronauts, including molecular biologist Sara García. The reserve is made up of candidates who stood out throughout the selection process and could become starters when flight opportunities present themselves, according to the agency. This group includes British Paralympic sprinter John McFall, who could become the first person with a disability to travel to space. The first reserve to have already gone to space is Swedish test pilot Marcus Wandt, who flew on the private commercial mission Axiom-3 in January.
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