The European Space Agency selects new astronauts. The reserve team includes the Czech representative23/11/2022|Press releasesThe European Space Agency (ESA) has announced the results of the competition for new astronauts. The Czech candidate, Captain Ing. Aleš Svoboda, Ph.D., was not missing on the stage in Paris. "Today's decision is another significant development in the field of space activities for the Czech Republic and proves once again the importance of our active role in ESA and other international organisations," says transport minister Martin Kupka. ESA has selected five career astronauts, 11 reserve members, including the thirty-six-year-old military pilot Aleš Svoboda, and for the first time in history, a para-astronaut, the world's first astronaut with a physical disability. "He was among the 17 astronauts in a six-round selection process where at the beginning there were 22 000 applicants from all 22 ESA member states. The competition was huge," says Václav Kobera, Director of the Department of Intelligent Transport Systems, Space Activities and Research, Development and Innovation at the Ministry of Transport and head of the delegation to ESA. The five career astronauts will complement the seven active astronauts that ESA currently has. Their training will begin in 2023. The selection is limited to five, which was announced at the beginning of the process. This corresponds to the number of flight opportunities to the ISS and the Moon. "If ESA were to select more candidates than can realistically fly in the foreseeable future, some members would wait too long for a flight and lose the best years of their lives, which would be unfair to them," explains Ondřej Rohlík, the Czech Republic's representative on ESA's Programme Board for Manned Spacecraft, Microgravity and Space Exploration. While career astronauts will become ESA employees and continue their lifelong career as an astronaut, reserve members will continue in their current employment while maintaining their medical certification, knowledge of ESA programmes and, most importantly, will be available as replacements to cover for career astronauts in the event that someone leaves the team – in which case ESA does not need to do a new competition. They may also be selected for a unit if the need for astronauts increases due to an increase in flight opportunities, or they may be selected for specific missions, especially national missions (fully paid for by a specific state) as a so-called project astronaut with the understanding that they will be reinstated as a reservist upon completion of such a mission. The Czech Republic does not yet envisage a fully funded national mission, but supports the expansion of the career astronaut section if the ESA budget allows it. At the ESA Council at ministerial level, which ended just two hours before the announcement of the astronaut selection results, the Czech Republic contributed to the entire set of ESA optional programmes. From next year, the Czech Republic's annual budget for these programmes will increase by 5%. But ESA is not only looking for astronauts. Due to a generational change arising from a wave of retirements, ESA has set itself the ambitious target of recruiting 100 new employees every year for the next 10 years. Hundreds of other positions for engineers, scientists, office staff and other related positions are continuously advertised. The ESA also prefers a proportional representation of nationalities among its staff, which can be seen as an opportunity to give preference to candidates from the Czech Republic.