Two high-level athletes are now working in space

Back then, army pilots took care of teams of astronauts. They are men and women who are used in extreme situations and direct orders. Later, scientists and technicians in more specific subjects were included as required by the conditions of the missions. Now the THATthe European space agency, recruited an amputee who previously had a successful career in sports and won medals in several Olympic Games.

Athlete, doctor and paraastronaut

“I felt compelled to apply for the position.” That’s how he defines it john mcfall on November 23, 2022, their inclusion in the ESA, seeing the requirements they requested: they are looking for a candidate with a disability. McFall41 years old and selected from 20,000 applicants, will be part of a program that will study the feasibility of sending parastronauts into space, their daily needs and their adaptations to space vehicles.

The Spanish Pablo Alvarezengineer and table tennis player and biotechnologist Sarah Garciafond of Krav Maga (Israeli Army self defense) was also announced in the new promo.

john mcfall his right leg was amputated when it was amputated in a motorcycle accident in Thailand when I was 19 years old. He returned to track and field in 2004 after being fitted with a prosthesis and in 2005 he won his first bronze medal in the 200 m. represent Britain at the European Championships Finland. Silver medal in the 100 meters and gold in the 200 at the 2006 world championships, he took another gold the following year in Manchester. In 2006 and two weeks before the Sparkassen Cup in Stuttgartsome thieves stole the prosthesis he hid in his car in a parking lot Welsh. McFall He received a call indicating that he could retrieve it but did not know the price. “How much is that?” they asked. JohnFurious, he cuts them if they know what it feels like to be cut. The youth returned it a week later to Welsh Institute of Sport.

Considered one of the fastest men in the 100m and 200m. in the above knee amputee class, represented Britain in JJ. YES. from Beijing of 2008 where a bronze was hung in the 100m. His dream was to participate in the 2012 London Games but he decided to retire in 2009 to start his medical studies, graduating in 2014. In 2018 he completed his surgical training in general surgery, urology and traumatology and orthopedics.

Although it is not guaranteed that you will fly into space, the THAT it was chosen to review feasibility studies on modules where its inclusion would not compromise crew safety.

170 days, 13 hours and 3 minutes

before McFallanother athlete with a high level sports resume and an impressive record of service from POTHe is back from outer space. On October 14, geologist and astronaut Jessica Watkins (34 years old), returned to Earth with Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren and the European astronaut of ESA Samantha Cristoforetti in a capsule that fell into the sea after completing a long mission (exactly 170 days, 13 hours and 3 minutes) on expeditions 67 and 68 of SpaceX Crew-4 to study geological changes in space. He was the first African American to complete a mission in such a long time.

As a student he has worked in the lander of mars phoenix and in graduate school, in rover planning curiosity from Mars. Appointed by POT as chief geologist, in 2017 he began his astronaut training and in 2020 he was selected as a team member artemis to send people back to Moon.

For jessica watkins, sport has always been linked to his studies. In his first course at Stanford he started playing rugby where he stayed for four years. In 2008, his sophomore year, his team became the Division I national champion and in 2009 he was part of the deer eagles at the Rugby Sevens World Cup, taking third place and being the leading scorer for the US team.

During his postgraduate degree in Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in 2017, retired from playing rugby but still has his ‘eyes’ on being part of a sports team, he is a volunteer assistant coach on the women’s varsity basketball team.

We hope that soon, more scientist-athletes will join space missions where their experience and sports training will give them a boost in their search for answers from space.