No Portuguese has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the class of five new career astronauts announced this Wednesday.
As part of the recruitment campaign launched in March 2021, ESA selected three men (from Spain, Belgium and Switzerland) and two women (from France and the United Kingdom).
The new astronauts include pilots, a doctor and a neuroscientist.
Announced at a ceremony broadcast live from Paris, France, the new career astronauts will begin the training program for future space missions next year and will join the current active corps of seven ESA astronauts – from Italy (2) , Germany (2 ), United Kingdom (1), Denmark (1) and France (1).
ESA also selected an astronaut with a physical disability for the first time, as part of a program that will serve to study the conditions and technologies that ensure safe missions for these people.
For the recruitment campaign launched in 2021, more than ten years after the previous one, 320 Portuguese with valid applications applied, out of a total of more than 22 thousand of different nationalities.
ESA opened the new recruitment to thinking about future missions to the moon or even to Mars and wanted to increase the number of women in space – currently the agency has an active astronaut, Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti, who this year became the first European woman to commanded the International Space Station.
Source: DN
