Congratulations to CERN staff member Slawosz Uznanski, reliability engineer of the LHC new power converters in the Accelerator Systems department (SY), for making it to the new class of European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts, in the reserve pool. Slawosz, who has a passion for space and exploration since his early childhood, has successfully passed all the stages of a year-long extremely competitive selection process, which started in summer 2021 with more than 22 500 valid applications from across ESA Member States and Associate Members. This was the first call for new ESA astronaut applicants since 2008.
The new members of ESA’s astronaut corps have been announced today during a live media event aired on ESA TV. They will take up duty at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.