Ioonos

A European profession

In Europe there are not specific astronauts for each country. They are grouped together within the European Space Agency (ESA)*, and more specifically within the EAC (European Astronaut Corps), a European Astronaut Corps established in Cologne, Germany. All astronauts in the ESA followed a different career path, with specialised training in one or several fields with science as the dominant subject.

A highly selective training programme

The renewal of the astronaut corps depends on the departures and needs for space programmes. After the launching of the European space laboratory, Columbus, planned for late 2007, ESA will open a new selective process early 2008.
Any man or woman from an ESA member country can apply, they must be between the ages of 27 and 37, and measure between 5 ft 1" and 6 ft 3 ". Obviously they need to be in good physical and mental health. It is essential that they speak English and a good command of Russian would be very welcome! Applicants must also fill in an application whose weight and size certainly seems to deter a vast majority (80% to be more precise!).

Being selected is one thing, but being well trained is another!  

Once you’ve been selected among the rare and lucky few, you’ll need to train. At the EAC that will take one year which is very little compared with the 4 years needed at NASA or the dozen of years needed in Russia.  But after that, it all depends on the type of mission. And even then, you still don’t know if you’ll ever go anywhere, because some astronauts never do!
For a mission in an American space shuttle, the 4 years’ training that apprentice American astronauts have is a necessity. To travel in a Soyuz, a one-year training course is given at the Russian Star City. As for a sojourn in the International Space Station (ISS), one or two years' training is necessary within a group of international astronauts, and an 18 month training session adapted to the specific mission allocated.