Helen Sharman, the UK’s first astronaut, welcomes the European Space Agency’s decision to improve diversity among crew as an ‘exciting time for human space expansion’.
Esa announced earlier this week that, as part of its effort to recruit up to 26 new astronauts, it’s just throwing itself wider than ever before and that diversity – across gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs and physical disabilities – will be at its core . recruitment efforts.
Sharman said she was “delighted that there should be a new Esa astronaut” and welcomed the news that Esa wants a better view of the population’s diversity in its space personnel.
She joins other leading European astronauts, including Tim Peake, of the United Kingdom, and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, praising Esa’s latest astronaut recruitment campaign and the agency’s focus on improving diversity.
In 1989, Sharman responded to a radio advertisement looking for astronauts. She was selected before 13,000 other applicants and eventually flew on a Soyuz rocket and spent eight days aboard Mir, the former Russian space station.
Today, the chances of being selected as an astronaut remain so frightening. Jan Wörner, CEO of Esa, said at a press conference earlier this week that Esa had applied for more than 8,000 candidates in 2009 when Esa last recruited new astronauts. Six were eventually selected. Peake was one of them.
Esa’s search for new astronauts will include four to six new ‘career astronauts’ who will undertake long-term missions, such as flying to the moon. For the first time, Esa is also looking for 20 additional “reserve astronauts” who do not have to leave their day job, but can call for one-time missions.
Wörner emphasizes: “Diversity is not a burden for us. Diversity is an asset. ”
He added: ‘Since its inception in 1975, Esa has brought together a variety of countries and cultures. But diversity is also something we look at in a broader sense. For this new search, we will especially encourage women to apply because it is very interesting and supportive when we have mixed teams. ”
Of the 560 people who flew in space, only 11% were women.
In the 1950s, when Nasa first considered sending humans into space, their initial call for astronauts looked for men less than 180 cm who were engaged in dangerous and physical activities, such as diving and mountaineering.
The then US President, Dwight Eisenhower, personally intervened, insisting that only military test pilots would be eligible, a requirement that would enable women to apply.
The Soviet Union took a different approach. The large death toll in World War II meant that there were many more women in professional roles. In 1963, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
It would take 20 years before another track would reach a track.
Space agencies now want to expand diversity in their ranks. In 2019, Nasa successfully completed its first space step for women (its first attempt had to be postponed due to a lack of packs in the right sizes). In October 2020, the toilets aboard the International Space Station were replaced with a new design that works better for both women and men.
And as part of its Artemis program, Nasa has committed to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024.
In addition to gender, Esa will for the first time also consider people with physical disabilities as part of a new project called the feasibility project Parastronaut.
Cristoforetti said: ‘When it comes to space travel, we are all disabled. We did not evolve to go to space. And so [sending an individual with a physical disability into space] becomes a matter of technology. ”
The ultimate goal of Esa is that an astronaut with a physical disability can finally fly to the International Space Station. Peake said: “It’s about ability, it’s not about disability. I would not worry at all about flying to the space for the person with disabilities.”
Sharman said she expects that as human spaceflight becomes more commercial, space will become more accessible as people work for companies performing tasks in space.
‘These astronauts will not be astronauts employed by a space agency, but rather spend periods in space just as they may spend periods in different workplaces on earth. It is an exciting time for the expansion of human spaceflight, ”she said.
In addition to the astronaut, Esa also talked about the “diversity of launch vehicles”. Government rockets used to be the only way to get to space. Future astronauts may find themselves on a SpaceX or Boeing rocket, or even on a Soyuz – the same spacecraft that Sharman took into space almost 30 years ago.