22 Poles have been qualified to the second stage of the ESA’s recruitment process for the role of an astronaut.
The European Space Agency informed to receive 22 523 valid applications in the current recruitment process for the role of an astronaut. According to statistics, the biggest national groups of candidates were the French (7087 people), Germans (3695 people), the British (2000 people). Among the nationalities of Central-Eastern and Southern Europe, the largest number of applicants were Romanians (254 people) the Greek (281 people) and the Czech (204 people). In turn, 80 applications were submitted by citizens of Lithuania which joined the ESA in 2021.
1361 people from 25 the ESA’s countries have been qualified for the second stage. Now, they will go through meritorious, medical and psychological tests. Results are due to be announced in autumn. The ESA does not inform of how many vacancies are to be filled.
It is worth mentioning, the ESA uses the term “astronaut” in contrast to the term “cosmonaut” which is more popular in Central-Eastern Europe and Russia. In general, both terms are used interchangeably. Poland has had only one Pole in outer space so far. In 1976, gen. Miroslaw Hermaszewski took part in the “Interkosmos” space program and flew into space along with the Soviet cosmonaut Peter Klimuk on the Soyuz-30 spacecraft.
Pict.: ESA
