Copernical Team
The world finally has its first 'parastronaut'. Can we expect anyone to be able to go to space one day?
The European Space Agency made history last week with the announcement of the first "parastronaut," 41-year-old UK citizen John McFall.
He is the first candidate selected for the Parastronaut Feasibility project, described by ESA as a "serious, dedicated and honest attempt to clear the path to space for a professional astronaut with a physical disability."
McFall, a former Paralympic sprinter, had his right leg amputated after a motorcycle accident at age 19.
Most of us are familiar with images of grueling astronaut selection tests and training from movies such as The Right Stuff. ESA seeks to answer the practical question of what changes to training and equipment need to be made for a physically disabled person to travel to space.
How are astronauts selected?
NASA first selected astronauts, the Mercury Seven, in 1959.
European Service Module, Orion, Moon, Earth
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European Service Module, Orion, Moon, Earth Week in images: 28 November - 02 December 2022
Week in images: 28 November - 02 December 2022
Discover our week through the lens
Green City Makers wins top prize at Copernicus Masters
Green City Makers wins top prize at Copernicus Masters
Curtain up for ESA’s new class of astronauts
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Clear the stage for lots of smiles from ESA's newly selected astronaut candidates. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher announced them on 23 November 2022, following the ESA Council at Ministerial level in Paris, France.
The European Space Agency chose 17 new astronaut candidates from more than 22 500 applicants from across its Member States who submitted a valid application in the 2021 ESA call for new astronauts.
In this new 2022 class of ESA astronauts are five career astronauts, 11 members of the astronaut reserve and one astronaut with a physical disability for a feasibility project for missions to the
Webb tracks clouds on Saturn’s moon Titan
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These are images of Saturn’s moon Titan, captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument on 4 November 2022. The image on the left uses a filter sensitive to Titan’s lower atmosphere. The bright spots are prominent clouds in the northern hemisphere. The image on the right is a color composite image. Click here for an annotated version of this image.
Titan is the only moon in the Solar System with a dense atmosphere, and it is also the only planetary body other than Earth that currently has rivers, lakes, and seas. Unlike Earth, however, the
Earth from Space: the moraines of Malaspina
The remarkable moraine patterns of Malaspina Glacier – the largest piedmont glacier in the world – are featured in this false-colour image acquired by Copernicus Sentinel-2.
Tiangong space station open to world
Over the past 19 years, from China's first manned space mission Shenzhou V to the latest Shenzhou XV launch, the nation's space endeavors have progressed from a single-astronaut mission to the long-term stay of several astronauts in space. The number of astronauts one spaceship can carry has increased from one to three, and the length of time the astronauts stay in space has expanded from just 2 Back to the Marker Band - Sols 3667-3668
Still stuffed and feeling thankful our weekend plans were successful! This morning's downlink showed we had more power to play with than was modeled last week, this time due to the SAM activities running conservatively on Sols 3662 and 3663 (Thanksgiving and the day after). From this "power gift" we were able to add a whole hour to our remote science time and use our DRT for a full sol of scienc New minerals discovered in massive meteorite may reveal clues to asteroid formation
A team of researchers has discovered at least two new minerals that have never before been seen on Earth in a 15 tonne meteorite found in Somalia - the ninth largest meteorite ever found.
"Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what's been found before," says Chris Herd, a professor in the Department of 
