ESA Flies Disabled Astronauts And Two Space Stations To The Moon

European Space Agency control room. (Wikimedia Commons/European Space Agency)

JAKARTA - The European Space Agency (ESA) hopes to recruit and dispatch the world's first disabled astronaut. This plan received rave reviews from the disabled.

Head of ESA Josef Aschbacher in a statement quoting Reuters on June 28, hundreds of people with disabilities have applied to become ESA astronauts and are ready to be flown into space.

The 22-member space program has just concluded its latest ten-year astronaut recruitment process, receiving 22.000 applications, Aschbacher said.

"We want to launch astronauts with disabilities, which will be the first time. I'm also happy for ESA because it shows that space is for everyone, and that's something I want to convey", he explained.

European astronaut illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/DLR)

ESA, whose Ariane rockets once dominated the market for commercial satellite launches is facing increasing competition from tech start-ups, such as Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Amazon founder Bezos hopes next month to become the first person to go into space on his own rocket, highlighting the role tech billionaires have played in a field once dominated by public institutions.

"The space is evolving very fast and if we don't catch up with this train, we're falling behind", said Aschbacher, outlining plans to reshape the agency as a more entrepreneurial player, ready to work with venture capitalists to help grow the European start-up that is one day can rival the Silicon Valley players.

The challenge is huge, ESA's 7 billion euro budget is a third of NASA's budget, with the number of space launches between 7-8 launches per year, much less than the United States with 40 launches per year.

Aschbacher, who grew up gazing at the stars over his parents' mountain farm in Austria himself applied to become an ESA astronaut while still a student. But what was once geeky, niche enthusiasm is now mainstream, he says.

European Space Agency control room (Wikimedia Commons/European Space Agency)

This year's astronaut job advertisements attracted nearly three times as many applications as 8.000 applications received a decade ago, with a quarter of them women, up from 15 percent previously.

ESA has pledged to develop technology to ensure that people with disabilities, such as people with disabilities in the legs, will continue to have a full role as astronauts.

And those astronauts will go beyond the International Space Station, some will be deployed to the United States' planned Gateway station on the moon, while ESA member states are considering invitations from the Chinese and Russian space agencies to participate in their own lunar base projects.

Could European astronauts one day serve simultaneously on two different lunar bases at once?

"The invitation is already on the table and that's a really good idea", concluded Aschbacher.