| 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group | |
|---|---|
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| Year selected | 2022 |
| Number selected |
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← 2009 | |
The2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group is the latest class of theEuropean Astronaut Corps. The selection recruited five career astronauts, as well as twelve reserve astronauts.[1]
They are the fourthEuropean Space Agency (ESA) astronaut class to be recruited.[2] The group joined the continuing corps of ESA astronauts, thoseselected in 2009, to perform both long and short-duration spaceflight missions aboard theInternational Space Station, and as part of theArtemis program.[3][4]
Five career astronauts were selected who, upon their graduation from basic training, were given the class name "The Hoppers". The campaign also recruited a reserve pool of astronauts who, although not employed as ESA staff would be given components of the same basic training as the career group and be available to be called upon as a project astronaut for mission assignment.[2] Additionally, the campaign included the selection of a candidate with aphysical disability through the "parastronaut feasibility project"[5][6][4] later renamed the "Fly! feasibility study".[7][8]
The announcement of the selected candidates took place in Paris on 23 November 2022 at theGrand Palais Éphémère, at the conclusion of the triennial ESAMinisterial Council meeting.[9]
| Astronaut | Date | Flight assignment | ESA mission | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marcus Wandt | Jan–Feb 2024 | Ax-3 | Munnin | 21 days |
| Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski | June–July 2025 | Ax-4 | Ignis | 20 days |
| Sophie Adenot | Early 2026 | Crew-12 | Epsion | 6 months (planned) |
| Raphaël Liégeois | Late 2026 | TBD | TBD | 6 months (planned) |
In March 2023, theAustralian Space Agency announced it would fund the training of its employeeKatherine Bennell-Pegg at theEuropean Astronaut Centre (EAC) alongside the 5 career astronauts.[30] Basic training for some of the group began throughout 2023 at theEuropean Astronaut Centre (EAC) facilities in Cologne, with a duration of approximately a year. The five selected "career" astronauts began in April,[31] joined by three members of the reserve who had received "project" astronaut assignments: McFall and Wandt in June,[32][33] and Uznański in September.[34]
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,[35] the Polishminister for Economic Development and Technology stated the intent was "to submit the candidature" of Uznański for a flight in 2024.[36]
After being initially announced as a reserveMarcus Wandt became the first of the class to be assigned to a spaceflight, as "mission specialist" aboardAxiom-3, to the International Space Station.[37] It became be "the first commercial mission for an ESA-sponsored astronaut"[38] with theSwedish National Space Agency responsible to "negotiate directly withAxiom for the flight" following ESA director general signing ofletter of intent in April 2023 for such a mission.[39][40] His training was performed in reverse-order to the norm, with the mission-specific content first then followed by basic training at EAC second.[41] Wandt's mission was designated "Muninn" as it partially coincided with Danish ESA astronautAndreas Mogensen's mission "Huginn".[42][43] The Axiom-3 mission took place from 18 January to 9 February with Wandt serving as amission specialist.
The career astronauts (as well asBennell-Pegg) graduated from Basic Training at theEuropean Astronaut Centre on the 22nd of April 2024 and were given the class name "The Hoppers".[44] One month later, in the context of a meeting of the EU/ESA "Space Council" meeting held in Brussels,Adenot thenLiégeois were announced as receiving the first two long duration mission assignments – both scheduled in that order for 2026.[45]
In August, it was confirmed that Uznański was assigned onAxiom-4, scheduled for 2025 and immediately began his mission training.[46][47] 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.[48]
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After several launch delays, the Axiom-4 mission took place from 25 June to 15 July, with Uznański's mission named "Ignis".[49][50] Adenot's mission was announced as being designated "Epsilon" (stylised as εpsilon).[51]
| ESA press conferences | |
|---|---|
 Recruitment campaign launch –English,French,German,Italian,Dutch,Spanish. 16 February 2021 |
The recruitment campaign was announced at press conferences in February 2021.[52] Applications for the roles of "astronaut" and "astronaut (with a physical disability)" in theESA Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration Programmes were accepted between 31 March and 18 June of that year[53][54] and over 22 thousand applications were received.[55] The original deadline of May 28 was extended by three weeks due toLithuania joining ESA as an associate-member of ESA, and its citizens therefore becoming eligible to apply, only a week before the original deadline.[56]
Recruits could be a citizen of any ESA member or associate-member state.[b] Women were particularly encouraged to apply — in order to address thegender gap among astronauts[57] — as under 16% of applicants in the previous recruitment campaign were women.[5][58]
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 astronaut with a disability category); a "normal weight"BMI range; fluency inEnglish and another language; amaster's degree in the Natural Sciences, Medicine, Engineering, Mathematics/Computer Sciences (plus three years of professional experience), or accreditation as anexperimental test pilot; a "hearing capacity of 25dB or better per ear"; and a current class 2pilot's medical certificate.[59][2] Upon selection, recruits would then receive training in "...the essentials of being an astronaut, survival skills and theRussian language, before moving on to robotics, navigation, maintenance and spacewalks", and then receiving mission-specific training.[60]
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.[61]
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.[55] This represented a 2.8x increase in the number of applications received compared to the previous ESA astronaut selection process.[62] Almost five and a half thousand applicants (24%) were women – up from 1287 (15.3%) female applicants in the previous selection process.[62] Estonia had the highest proportion of female applicants (38.6%), while Switzerland had the lowest (17.8%).[55]
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 toThomas Pesquet's "Alpha" mission to theISS beginning while the application period was open.[63] 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.[64] ESA stressed that the eventual selection is "irrespective" of national funding of the organisation.[65]
Austria | Belgium | Czech Republic | Denmark | Estonia |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 466(24.9%) | 1,007(22.8%) | 204(18.1%) | 145(24.1%) | 57(38.6%) |
Finland | France | Germany | Greece | Hungary |
| 308(18.8%) | 7,087(23.2%) | 3,695 (28%) | 281(21.4%) | 149 (22.8%) |
Ireland | Italy | Latvia | Lithuania | Luxembourg |
| 276(28.3%) | 1,845(18.8%) | 83(27.7%) | 80(23.8%) | 64(18.8%) |
The Netherlands | Norway | Poland | Portugal | Romania |
| 982(30.1%) | 391(17.9%) | 549(23.3%) | 320(19.1%) | 254(21.7%) |
Slovenia | Spain | Sweden | Switzerland | United Kingdom |
| 62(21%) | 1,341(22.2%) | 281(18.1%) | 668(17.8%) | 2,000(28.5%) |
The selection process itself proceeds over six stages:[67]
| Recruitment round[67] | Applicants (of which disab.) | Completed | % Female | % of previous | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screening | 22,780 (257) | June 2021 | 24% | — | [55] | |
| Initial tests | 1,388 (27) | March 2022 | 39% | 6% | [55] | |
| Assessment centre evaluation | ~400 | May 2022 | ~29% | [69] | ||
| Medical tests | 91[70] | June 2022 | ~25% | [69] | ||
| Final interview | 25[71] | October 2022 | 40%+ | 27% | [72] | |
| Selection | Career | 5 | November 2022 | 40% | 20% | [1] |
| Reserve/Project | 12 (1) | 50% | 48% | |||
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