ESA Astronaut Class of 2022 announcement

Date: Wed, Nov 23, 2022 GMT

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ESA’s new class of astronauts will be announced on Wednesday, 23 November 2022 at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris. The new class will include career astronauts, reserve astronauts as well as astronauts with a physical disability for a feasibility project.

The event will be webstreamed live on ESA Web TV at 14:20-15:00 CET.

Immediately following the event, video interviews with the new class of astronauts in English and native languages will be made available on the Videos for Professionals page.

In 2021, ESA opened the vacancy notices for the roles of astronaut and astronaut with a physical disability. This was the first call for new astronaut applicants since 2008.

In response, ESA received more than 22 500 valid applications for the role of astronaut from across Member States and Associate Members. For the role of astronaut with a physical disability, 257 applications were received.

ESA aims to recruit four to six career astronauts who will join the ESA astronaut corps.

In addition to recruiting astronauts into the existing corps, ESA will for the first time also establish an astronaut reserve. This reserve will be composed of the candidates who were successful throughout the entire selection process and were not recruited. Astronauts in the reserve will remain employed by their current employers. ESA had also published a dedicated vacancy notice to select individuals with physical disabilities for the astronaut reserve.

More information:
https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA/ESA_Astronaut_Selection

CM22
The announcement of the new astronaut class will follow the conclusion of the ESA Council at Ministerial Level CM22. The CM22 opening and statements will be streamed on ESA Web TV on 22 November at 9:00-13:00 CET; a media conference presenting the outcomes of the meeting will be streamed 23 November at 13:30-14:15 CET.