First astronaut with a disability cleared for space station mission

PARIS: The first-ever astronaut with a physical disability has been cleared for a mission onboard the International Space Station, the European Space Agency announced on Friday.

John McFall, a 43-year-old British surgeon and former Paralympian who lost a leg in a motorbike accident when he was 19, said he was “hugely proud” of clearing the hurdle. Since announcing McFall as a member of its astronaut reserve in 2022, the European Space Agency (ESA) has been assessing the feasibility of someone with a prosthesis becoming a crew member on a space mission.

On Friday, the ESA announced that McFall had received medical clearance for a long-duration mission onboard the International Space Station (ISS). McFall emphasised that he was “relatively passive” in the process, and just had to be medically healthy and carry out the required tasks.

“This is way bigger than me -- this is a cultural shift,” he told an online press conference. There is no date yet for when McFall will get his chance to become what the ESA has dubbed the first “parastronaut”.

“Now he´s an astronaut like everybody else who wants to fly to the space station, waiting for a mission assignment,” the ESA´s director of human and robotic exploration Daniel Neuenschwander said. The ESA´s announcement comes as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have come under attack from the new US administration of Donald Trump.