The first results of a groundbreaking study into the possibility of sending people into space a person with a disability point out that space travel should not be banned for these types of people, as explained today by those responsible for the European Space Agency (ESA) Fly! study.
“Today we are announcing that there is no barrier to sending John McFall into space,” celebrated Jerome Reineix, head of the program, during a virtual press conference. McFall is a former Paralympic sprinter from Great Britain who had a leg amputated at age 19 after a motorcycle accident. In addition to running the 100 and 200 meters, the Briton is a surgeon specializing in traumatology and orthopedics. McFall could become the first person with a disability to travel to space.
The main message of this project, the Britons explained on Friday, is “to change the perception we have of people with disabilities”, “to break the stigma and create more opportunities”. Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA’s director of human exploration and robotics, added: “This is part of the democratisation of space, which should not just be a matter of test pilots.” Asked by journalists, McFall acknowledged that ESA is also considering the possibility of having astronauts with intellectual disabilities in the future.
In November 2022, he was selected as the first European 'parastronaut', along with the five titular astronauts, including Spanish engineer Pablo Alvarezand 11 other troops in reserve, including the molecular biologist Sara Garcia.
The European Space Agency (ESA) Fly! project was announced in November 2022 during the Council of Ministers in Paris. This groundbreaking study aims to understand the limitations that physical disabilities can impose on astronauts when travelling into space.
The idea is to make things easier, so that space exploration is not limited by physical limitations, and that people with disabilities can participate in space exploration and contribute to the benefits and impact it has on Earth.
In May of this year, ESA advertisement that the first two to travel to space, namely to the International Space Station (ISS), will be French engineer and test pilot Sophie Adenot, 42, and Belgian biomedical engineer and neuroscientist Raphaël Liégeois, 36. This trip will take place in 2026. ESA plans for the rest of the regular troops to also go to the station before 2030.
Challenges and hopes
Since June 2023, McFall has been participating in introductory classes and activities at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany, aimed at exploring the specific challenges his disability could pose to space travel.
The future first paraastronaut in history explained: “The hope is that whoever flies will be part of the crew.” The Briton has undergone many of the conventional astronaut preparation tests, including winter survival, and has also undergone specific tests that analysed his disability and the effects it could have on a future space mission. McFall gave an example: one of the tests was to analyse whether his stump would swell or decrease in volume in weightlessness, so that he would no longer be able to use his prosthesis. Wearing it is essential, because you need it to be able to fly. The examination found no problems and, among other things, it showed that McFall can quickly leave the ship in an emergency.
Last November, McFall took part in a flight in microgravity organized by ESA on board a special aircraft of the German space agency. These flights make successive descents to simulate the absence of gravity. On board was a group of people, including McFall, who seemed to function very easily in microgravity and were even able to catch sweets floating in the air.
'It's the first step I've taken to ever travel to space' the british said after the trip. “I hope that with this trip I can show people with disabilities that these kinds of things are really possible and that it is hopefully accessible to everyone,” he added.
The future parastronaut also entered the famous centrifuge that accelerates astronauts during their training, as he himself explained. recently on the BBC. One of the objectives was to prove that the prosthesis did not cause any physical problems, despite the increasing intensity of gravity. The Briton has also jumped into the water in a wetsuit with other colleagues to simulate sea rescues or has helped extinguish fires in containers as part of his training.
The plan is for McFall to also travel to the ISS aboard a capsule Dragonmanufactured by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, and could conduct experiments there for six months before returning to Earth, but it is still a project without a set date or budget. ESA needs its 22 member states, including Spain, to provide sufficient funding to send McFall to the space station. The trip should take place before 2030, as the plan is to decommission this veteran scientific facility, the only permanently inhabited place outside Earth, after that date. This same week, the US space agency NASA provided details on how the station’s lowering manoeuvre will be carried out to put it on a collision course with Earth’s atmosphere before its disintegration.
The company of the American billionaire Elon Musk, SpaceX, has been chosen to send Dragon capsules to the ISS to perform the maneuver. This gives some time to choose the moment of the fall, which could extend the period in which the installation remains functional and visitable. NASA wants to keep astronauts on the station as long as possible, and they will stay for up to six months before re-entering, when the base will already be about 220 kilometers above the Earth, while the normal orbit is about 400 kilometers according to the normal orbit explained Wednesday Dana Weigel, head of the ISS at the US agency. The entire process will take between a year and a year and a half.
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