Paralympian becomes first disabled astronaut
John Mcfall hopes to prove that ‘space travel is for everyone’ in European Space Agency project
A BRITISH Paralympian has become the world’s first disabled astronaut.
John Mcfall, 42, had his right leg amputated aged 19 after a motorbike accident and has become the first person with a physical disability to be selected for astronaut training by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The Briton will now be part of ESA’S “parastronaut feasibility project” to see what aspects of spaceflight need to be adapted in order for people with disabilities to go to space.
Speaking at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris, Mcfall said he hopes to inspire others and prove that “space is for everyone”.
Mcfall won a paralympic bronze medal in the 100 metre T42 category at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a time of 13.08 seconds. He also has been world champion in the 200 metre discipline.
In his post-athletics life he trained as a doctor and is now a trauma and orthopaedics registrar.
The ESA first announced it would be looking for astronauts with disabilities in early 2021 and Mcfall said he thought at the time that he would be “a very good candidate”.
“I always wanted to join the Army and that was what my life was tailored around – I came from a military family,” he said.
After losing his leg he taught himself to run again with a prosthetic, went to Swansea University and then did a master’s degree at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff. He is now working to be a consultant doctor alongside his astronaut training and said he was “very excited and proud” to be an astronaut.
“The message I would give to future generations is that science is for everyone and space travel, hopefully, is for everyone,” he said.
Mcfall will now work with the ESA to try to make it possible for people of short stature, people with missing limbs and other physical disabilities to go to space. It remains unknown if Mcfall will ever go to space but the ESA has said it “can commit to trying as hard and seriously as we can”.
The ESA said last year: “If there is one thing we have learnt by working on the International Space Station, it is that there is great value in diversity.
“Including people with special needs also means benefiting from their extraordinary experience, ability to adapt to difficult environments, and point of view.”
Also joining the class of 2022 as one of the ESA’S five new career astronauts is British astronomer Rosemary Coogan.
Dr Coogan, from Northern Ireland, was born in 1991 and has a physics degree, a master’s in astronomy and a PHD in astrophysics.
“Space has always fascinated me,” she said. “I think it is really important to understand where we come from, the conditions of life and how the human body reacts when those conditions change.
“So I am really excited to do that by going to space, hopefully inspiring other people to do the same and contributing to the ESA’S goals.”
As a career astronaut, Dr Coogan will have a chance to become one of the first people to return to the Moon.
“In terms of going to the Moon, it really excites me because I feel as though it is almost stepping back in time to be on this rocky body that represents how the solar system was formed and how we can learn from ourselves,” she said. “That is really one of the things I am most looking forward to.”
Meganne Christian is the other Briton unveiled yesterday and will be a member of the ESA astronaut reserve.
Dr Christian has a PHD in industrial chemistry, spent two years working as a scientist in Antarctica and speaks four languages.
More than 22,500 people applied to join the programme, with the largest number coming from France (7,087), followed by Germany (3,695) and the UK (2,000). There were 257 applications to the ESA for the parastronaut scheme.
Following a comprehensive screening phase, 1,361 people were invited to phase two of the astronaut selection, which was narrowed down to just over 400 applicants during phase three.
The ESA revealed 17 new astronauts in total yesterday.