Disabled European astronaut no stranger to challenge

LONDON — John McFall is no stranger to a challenge. An avid sprinter in his youth, he had to learn how to run again after losing his leg in a motorcycle accident when he was 19.

He learned well: In the Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2008, he won the bronze medal in the 100 meters. Not content with that, he then trained as an orthopedic surgeon.

McFall has now his sights set even higher — much, much higher.

On Wednesday, the European Space Agency named McFall as one of its newest recruits, making him the world’s first physically disabled astronaut, the agency said.

He joins 16 other new faces from across Europe, chosen from about 22,500 applicants as the agency looked to diversify its pool of astronauts in its first hiring drive in more than a decade.

“I can bring inspiration,” McFall, 41, said at the cohort’s unveiling Wednesday. “Inspiration that science is for everyone,” he added, and that, “potentially, space is for everyone.”

Tim Peake, who became the European Space Agency’s first British astronaut in 2008, said that McFall’s recruitment was “absolutely groundbreaking.”

“He’s really going to be pushing the boundaries,” Peake said. “He’s very much paving the way for astronauts with future disabilities to do so as well.”

The recruits will soon begin a 12-month basic training program at the European Astronaut Centre in Germany.

In an interview released by the European Space Agency, McFall said that his selection had been “quite a whirlwind experience.”

“As an amputee,” he said, “I never thought that being an astronaut was a possibility.”

It may be some time until McFall is launched into orbit, however.

He will soon undertake a “feasibility project” to assess how physical disability might affect space travel and how any problems could be overcome. Once that study gives him the all-clear, he would be eligible to join space missions.

“We’ve got to undergo astronaut training and work out what it is about having a physical disability that makes it tricky and overcome those hurdles, so it adds an additional layer of complexity,” McFall said in the agency interview.

A father of three, he joked in the agency interview that he had been looking for a career change.

“I realized I couldn’t be an athlete for my whole life; I probably needed to get a proper job,” he said.

The European Space Agency, which is headquartered in Paris, was established in 1975 and has a staff of around 2,200 — although only a select few are astronauts.