European astronauts to be named

By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News

Esa member states have spent billions of euros on the ISS

The European Space Agency (Esa) is expected to name four new astronauts on Wednesday.

The recruits were selected from more than 8,000 applications and have been described as young and extremely capable individuals.

The astronauts will train to work on the International Space Station (ISS) and, depending on future developments, may even get to go to the Moon.

It is possible they could also pilot the first manned European spaceship.

Esa is just about to initiate a study that will consider the feasibility of turning its robotic ATV space freighter into a crew transportation vehicle.

"We're looking for four additional European astronauts," said Simonetta Di Pippo, Esa's director of human spaceflight.

"We will announce the new names on Wednesday; we are keeping everything secret up to then," she told BBC News.

"These are young candidates. I must say I found a very high level of expertise and capability. We started with 8,400 and we have to end up with four so you can imagine how tough it was. I'm really proud of what I saw in the last few weeks."

Programme commitment

This recruitment campaign is Esa's first astronaut selection since 1992. It currently has of eight members on its books - from Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. They are all men.

The Belgian Frank de Winne will this year assume command of the International Space Station - the first non-US, non-Russian to do so.

The new recruits are likely to get to fly on the space station

There will be high expectation in Germany, France, and Italy that one of their nationals makes it through to the final four.

These are the Esa member-states that have committed most money to the space station programme, the agency having spent something like five billion euros on the project so far.

A major surprise would be if a Briton makes it through. Although the UK is the fourth largest funder of Esa, it contributes nothing to the human spaceflight programme.

The agency has insisted that excellence is the only qualification that will be considered, but there is likely to be some disquiet in other member states if a UK citizen is selected to represent a programme his/her government has traditionally regarded as a low priority.

Questions would be raised about extra funding, if not for the human spaceflight programme then some other area of Esa's activities.

Seat shortage

Most of the 8,413 valid applications were received from France (22.1%) and Germany (21.4%) followed by Italy (11.0%), the United Kingdom (9.8%) and Spain (9.4%). 16% of the total of applications were submitted by women.

Again, Ms Di Pippo said that if a woman was selected it would be because she was one of the outstanding candidates - not because she was a woman.

European astronauts currently get into space by hitching a ride on US or Russian vehicles.

Esa is looking at how it could upgrade its space freighter

The new crop of astronauts, however, could conceivably be the first European astronauts to fly in an independent European crew transporter.

Member states have approved a study that would assess how the robotic Automated Transfer Vehicle could be upgraded, first to bring cargo safely back to Earth and then, perhaps, humans.

This future concept, known currently simply as the Crew Return Vehicle, or CRV, would launch on an Ariane 5 rocket.

Di Pippo believes Europe needs to develop its own crew ship because there are too few means of getting into space at the moment. And this supply of seats will be severely restricted in the next fears years as the US shuttle is retired and the world has to wait for its replacement, the Orion capsule.

"My slogan is that 'in a global endeavour we need autonomy for co-operation'," Ms Di Pippo told BBC News.

"So by increasing the autonomy of Europe, we will increase the robustness of the partnership."

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