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by Andrea Bettini

February 16, 2021 It involves exhausting hours, hard training, an inevitable dose of danger and months of travel away from home, but it is an indisputably unique job.

If your desire to fly into space outweighs the fear of the sacrifices necessary to succeed, then the right opportunity may have arrived.



The first selection since 2008

For the first time since 2008, the European Space Agency is recruiting new astronauts: four to six for its main astronaut corps and around twenty reserves for any additional missions.

“It is not a generational change - explains ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano - This is a thickening of the ranks of our team because there are seven active astronauts left.

We need to create a continuity of knowledge and to allow the European astronautical corps to work on various fronts: that of the low Earth orbit and that beyond the low orbit ”.

In short: the first destination for the new generation will be the International Space Station, but the Moon is a concrete possibility.

Our satellite will first be the destination for veterans, then it will also be the turn of the new generation of astronauts.



Requirements

There is still some time to prepare the curriculum: you can apply online from March 31st to May 28th.

Essential requirements: a degree in natural science, engineering, mathematics or computer science or the qualification as an experimenter pilot, three years of work experience, fluent English and knowledge of another language.



Parmitano: “Very competitive

selection

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The selection will end in October 2022. A year and a half that will be necessary to evaluate thousands of applications.

Moreover, on the previous occasion, when Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitano were also hired, the aspiring astronauts were eight thousand.

“The selection is and must be very competitive - says AstroLuca - The Agency must select the astronauts and astronauts with the best characteristics.

Those who want to participate must start with the idea that the selection itself is a training path.

Candidates will discover a lot about themselves and will have the opportunity to meet people with very different backgrounds.

I remember mine as a moment of great joy, not of difficulty ”.



The first disabled astronaut

For the first time, the selection will also be open to those with physical disabilities.

A parastronaut will join the reserve group of astronauts.

It will be the beginning of a path that will make it possible to adapt suits, shuttles, space modules, allowing a greater number of talented people to contribute to space research and exploration programs.