The 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group (nicknamed The Hoppers) is the latest class of the European Astronaut Corps. The selection recruited five "career", nine "reserve", and three "project" astronauts (including one "astronaut with a physical disability").[1] They are the fourth European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut class to be recruited.[2]
Along with the five selected "career astronauts", the campaign recruited 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."[2] Additionally, the campaign included the selection of a candidate with a physical disability through the "parastronaut feasibility project".[5][6][4] The announcement of the selected candidates took place in Paris on 23 November 2022 at the Grand Palais Éphémère, at the conclusion of the triennial ESA Ministerial Council meeting.[7]
In March 2023, the Australian Space Agency announced it would fund the training of Katherine Bennell-Pegg at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC).[8] Bennell-Pegg had applied to join the European Astronaut Corps as a British dual citizen and was among the finalists for the 2022 ESA group, though she was not selected in the final round.[8][9] This marked the first time ESA provided basic training to an astronaut candidate from an international partner, establishing the EAC as the third centre in the world to do so—after Johnson Space Center and the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre.[10] Bennell-Pegg became the first person to train as an astronaut under the Australian flag and the first female astronaut from Australia.[11]
Basic training for some of the group began throughout 2023 at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) facilities in Cologne, with a duration of approximately a year. The five selected "career" astronauts began in April,[32] joined by three members of the reserve who had received "project" astronaut assignments: McFall and Wandt in June,[33][34] and Uznański in September.[35]
In August 2023 the Polish government signed an agreement with ESA and Axiom have a Polish citizen aboard a future Axiom flight. Although the agreement did no specify who would fly or when that mission would take place,[36] the Polish minister for Economic Development and Technology stated the intent was "to submit the candidature" of Uznański for a flight in 2024.[37]
2024
Wandt (front left) upon arrival to the ISS, 2024
After being initially announced as a reserve Marcus Wandt became the first of the class to be assigned to a spaceflight, as "mission specialist" aboard Axiom-3, to the International Space Station.[38] It became be "the first commercial mission for an ESA-sponsored astronaut"[39] with the Swedish National Space Agency responsible to "negotiate directly with Axiom for the flight" following ESA director general signing of letter of intent in April 2023 for such a mission.[40][41] His training was performed in reverse-order to the norm, with the mission-specific content first then followed by basic training at EAC second.[42] Wandt's mission was designated "Muninn" as it partially coincided with Danish ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen's mission "Huginn".[43][44] The Axiom-3 mission took place from 18 January to 9 February with Wandt serving as a mission specialist.
The career astronauts (along with Australian astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg) graduated from Basic Training at the European Astronaut Centre on the 22nd of April 2024 under the class name "The Hoppers".[45] One month later, in the context of a meeting of the EU/ESA "Space Council" meeting held in Brussels, Adenot then Liégeois were announced as receiving the first two long duration mission assignments – both scheduled in that order for 2026.[46]
In August, it was confirmed that Uznański was assigned on Axiom-4, scheduled for 2025 and immediately began his mission training.[47][48] In September was announced that all the reserves (other than Wandt and Uznański) would receive "selected modules of ESA’s one-year basic training programme", to be conducted in three blocks of two-month duration over the next two years – with the first beginning the following month.[49]
After several launch delays, the Axiom-4 mission took place from 25 June to 15 July, with Uznański's mission named "Ignis".[50][51] Adenot's mission was announced as being designated "epsilon" [52]
The recruitment campaign was announced at press conferences in February 2021.[53] 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[54][55] and over 22 thousand applications were received.[56] 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.[57]
Criteria
Recruits could be a citizen of any ESA member or associate-member state.[b] Women were particularly encouraged to apply — in order to address the gender gap among astronauts[58] — as under 16% of applicants in the previous recruitment campaign were women.[5][59]
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 190cm tall (with possible exception under the astronaut with a disability 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.[60][2] 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.[61]
The types of disability considered for astronaut with a disability program were lower limb deficiency (e.g. due to amputation or congenital limb deficiency), leg length difference, or short stature.[62]
Applicants
Applications from 22,523 candidates were received. They came from all eligible nationalities (including Lithuania), as well as 257 for the astronaut with a disability program.[56] This represented a 2.8x increase in the number of applications received compared to the previous ESA astronaut selection process.[63] Almost five and a half thousand applicants (24%) were women – up from 1287 (15.3%) female applicants in the previous selection process.[63] Estonia had the highest proportion of female applicants (38.6%), while Switzerland had the lowest (17.8%).[56]
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.[64] 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.[65] ESA stressed that the eventual selection is "irrespective" of national funding of the organisation.[66]
The selection process itself proceeds over six stages:[68]
Screening of applicants was undertaken "on the basis of documents submitted, the application form and the screening questionnaire." It was initially expected that approximately 1,500 (7%) applicants would be accepted through to stage 2.[64] By the conclusion of the 1st stage in January 2022, 1,361 astronaut candidates and 27 disabled candidates were invited to the 2nd stage – including at least one man and one woman from every eligible nationality.[56][69]
Initial tests consisted of "cognitive, technical, motor coordination and personality tests" administered by the German Aerospace Center in Hamburg.
Assessment centre evaluation involved "additional psychometric tests, individual and group exercises and practical tests" administered at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne.
Medical tests assessed "physical and psychological condition in view of long-duration astronaut missions"[70] administered in Cologne and the Toulouse Space Centre, France.
Panel interview assesses "technical and behavioural competencies" including a background check.
↑ 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.[2][57]
↑ While many applicants hold multiple citizenships, for statistical purposes ESA categorises them according to their self-declared first citizenship.
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