For the past year, six strong, brainy people trained to go to space. They spun in centrifuges (machines that help people feel what it’s like to speed up really fast). They spent hours underwater with scuba gear. They camped in the snow. And they studied, studied, studied.
Five of the trainees are astronauts with the European Space Agency. At least, they are now. They just graduated from training. More than 20,000 people applied for their jobs. Who are the five superheroes who were hired?
- Pablo Alvarez Fernandez, an aeronautical engineer from Spain
- Rosemary Coogan, a British astronomer
- Raphael Liegeois, a Belgian biomedical engineer and neuroscientist
- Marco Alain Sieber, a Swiss emergency physician
- Sophie Adenot, a French air force helicopter test pilot
Katherine Bennell-Pegg from Australia also joined the training. She works for the Australian Space Agency.
Altogether, the new astronauts have experience flying planes, helicopters, gliders, and balloons. For fun they row, scuba dive, hike, skydive, cycle, sail, and kayak.
Ms. Adenot says the group is “a fantastic crew and a fantastic team.” She’s still thinking about a particular moment in training. She left an airlock for an underwater “spacewalk.” She floated like she would outside Earth’s atmosphere. The instructor said, “Welcome to space.”
“And for me it was mind-blowing,” Ms. Adenot says. “I had goosebumps. In a few years it is going to be me in space, not in the water with safety divers.”
She remembers dreaming of space travel as a girl. People told her that dream wouldn’t come true. But now it is happening!
The astronauts learned how to survive many dangers. (A splashdown in the ocean. Running low on oxygen. Staying warm in case they need to wait for rescue.) On top of that came academic work. They studied all kinds of science and the Space Station’s parts and equipment. The astronauts also learned Russian. Russian is one of the working languages on the International Space Station.
The soul of the diligent is richly supplied. — Proverbs 13:4
