This is the first recruitment in more than a decade – the agency management has come to the conclusion that it is time to rejuvenate the astronauts a little. The European Space Agency encourages women to apply, because the current army formation includes only one – 43-year-old Italian Samantha Cristoforetti.
EAC applications will be accepted from March 31 to May 28. Those who pass the initial selection must then go through six more stages. We will know the winners no later than next October.
The competition will definitely be great, as space travel fuels the imagination more and more. Several thousand applicants applied for the jobs that NASA announced last year.
The current European team consists of seven people: two Italians, a German, a Danish, a Frenchman and a Briton. 44-year-old Italian Luca Parmitano spent most of the time in space – more than 366 days. Only 4 days old is 44-year-old German Alexander Gerst.
The lone pole found itself in space in 1978 thanks to the Soviet Intercosmos program. He was chosen from among 500 military pilots. Spent 8 days in space.
