Countdown to know the names of the new astronauts of the European Space Agency (ESA): there will be four or six (the definitive number has not been disclosed at the moment) and the big news is that alongside the career astronauts there will be for the first time the parastronauts.
In fact, ESA has also opened the doors of the space to applications from disabled people and this is the first year in which selection has also taken place for this group.
As far as we know, the selection of astronaut reserves is also planned.
Since 2008, applications from women have increased from 15.3% to 23.9%, while over the same period applications from men have decreased from 83.7% to 76.0%.
There were 22,589 applications received from ESA member countries, against 8,413 in the last selection in 2008, which had brought the Italians Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitano into the ESA astronaut corps.
The majority of applications came from France, with 7,137, followed by Germany (3,700) and the United Kingdom (1,979).
Italy, with 1,860 ranks fourth and is currently the only country to have two astronauts.
At the end of the selection process, 1,361 applications (530 submitted by women and 831 by men) were selected for further selection, the result of which will be known tomorrow, 23 November.
Of the 257 people with physical disabilities who aspire to become parastronauts, 27 have passed the second stage of the selection.