From the A350 to eyes on the stars!

Chosen from more than 22,500 applicants, Pablo Alvarez Fernandez was selected this month as a career astronaut candidate by the European Space Agency (ESA).  He currently is the Airbus Project Management Officer in Getafe, Spain for the A350 commercial aircraft, and previously worked on the ExoMars Martian rover in the UK at Airbus Defence and Space.

In the following interview, Fernández shares his excitement after becoming the first Spaniard in 30 years to be named a European astronaut, and looks ahead to next April when training begins at the ESA Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. 

Q: What are the next steps for you after this milestone announcement?

A: Starting next spring, I will become an ESA employee. There’s a year of basic training in Germany, and then another year of incremental training. We acquire basic knowledge of how the International Space Station works, followed by spending time in other countries, including the United States, Canada and Japan before heading back to Cologne. 

After basic training, we enter the next training phase for working aboard the International Space Station, and – once assigned to a mission – the training will be tailored to my specific mission’s tasks, including the equipment and experiments. Every day spent on the International Space Station costs a lot of money and everything has to be very well organised to ensure maximum benefits are obtained from the mission.

Q: Looking to future space travel, where would you rather go: Mars or the Moon?

A: Mars is still impossible for human spaceflight. I have to go one step at a time; the first thing I need to do is complete my training. The first mission would be to the International Space Station, which is where we have the most experience and it’s safer for a rookie like me, because that’s what I am right now! After gaining more experience, astronauts are assigned to other missions. 

What everyone’s talking about today is Artemis, which will put the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon in 2025. An important element of Artemis is the Orion crewed spacecraft, which is powered by the Airbus-built European Service Module – an element of pride for us.

Q: You applied under the procedure established by ESA for disabled astronauts.

A: Yes, and they selected me as a career astronaut, which is much better than I’d expected. They decided that I had a very mild disability and chose me on the same basis as other non-disabled colleagues.

Q: Do you think that humans one day will inhabit other planets?

A: Yes, I think so. We humans have something in our genes that makes us want to explore. Ever since our ancestors left Africa, we’ve always tried to go farther. We’ve also gone to the most inhospitable places on Earth, even underwater, and reached the highest mountains. We have that explorer gene. So yes, I believe that we will be on other planets, but there’s still a lot of technology to develop to make it feasible. We have to take it one step at a time.

Q: What is it about your hometown of León, Spain that breeds astronauts? Sara García Alonso, who was selected in the class of 2022 as a member of the astronaut reserve, also is from León.  Something in the local jamón "cecina" (Spanish ham) from León, perhaps? 

A: Maybe so! It’s an incredible coincidence. I hope I won’t have to miss the jamón from León when I am on the International Space Station – maybe they’ll let me take a little bit on my mission. Anyway, the astronauts are very busy, and it doesn’t seem like I’ll have much time to miss anything. Having said that, I’m sure I’ll miss plants, trees, nature and so on; it’s a very sterile environment on the International Space Station.

Q: Finally, is there anything you’re afraid of?

A: It’s mostly excitement, there’s no fear. I would be nervous about the moment of liftoff because getting inside the rocket and feeling the thrust of something like that is a bit scary. But it’s a fear that you have to learn to transform in order to be as prepared as possible.