The vacancy published by the European Space Agency in February has received a great response. The application committee has to consider at least 22,000 letters of application from people who want to become astronauts.
Among the applicants are nearly a thousand Dutch. 998 CVs and motivational letters from citizens fell on the ESA carpet. 30% of the messages come from Dutch women. In total, 300 women applied for the job.
The European Space Agency is looking for several astronauts
Only in Estonia were more women applying, although there were far fewer registrations in total. The number of women is good news: one of the ESA’s goals is to recruit more women to increase diversity. The organization is also looking for paratroopers: astronauts with a slight physical disability. “Diversity at ESA should not be limited to race, age, background or gender of our astronauts, but possibly also to physical limitations,” the organization said in February.
The European Space Agency is looking for people who want to go into space. Of the 22,000 people who applied, four to six will be hired. In addition, a group of about twenty “reserve astronauts” is being created. These people are on call for short commercial spaceflights.
Not just any astronaut
In principle, anyone can apply, but whoever wishes to invite him must meet a number of requirements. You must have a master’s degree in a specific subject, speak fluent English, have three years of work experience and people over 50 are excluded. It must also come from one of the ESA member countries.
A large group must now be selected: a maximum of 1,500 people will advance to the second round. These people should do a psychological test. After that, the screening will continue and the European Space Agency hopes to introduce the new astronauts in October.
New station on the moon
The last time the European Space Agency looked for astronauts was in 2008. And there were far fewer requests: “only” 8,413 people sent the stimulus letter, including 200 Dutch people. Italians, Italians, Germans, British, French and Danes have all been on the International Space Station in recent years. During the application round for this, in 1998, the Dutchman Andre Kuipers was hired.
According to the organization, with the next crew of astronauts, Europe is entering a new era of space exploration. Europe is working with the United States, Canada and Japan on manned flights to the Moon. Europe can provide at least three astronauts who will live in a new space station around the moon. New astronauts can also travel to the International Space Station.
Still a young astronaut
Are you unsuitable to become an astronaut or are you just late applying for a job? Then you can also save for your space flight. SpaceX, the space company of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, wants to send tourist flights to the International Space Station next year. A spot in the rocket will cost you 49 million euros. You are expected to pay €31,000 for an overnight stay, you know RTL.
You can also search close to home, in many streaming services you can watch the best films about astronauts. This is how you watch the classic Stanley Kubrick movie on Prime, 2001: space flight en Christopher Nolan Interstellar. Ad Astra With Brad Pitt as an astronaut you’ll find there, too. On Netflix you will find files Apollo 13And the Cloverfield Paradox And the series Challenger. The latter is a documentary series about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, if you want to quickly recover from your dream of space.
Career switch? NASA is looking for astronauts
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Nearly 1,000 Dutch people are applying as astronauts to the European Space Agency