At the Paris air show Hyperbola got to interview three of the European Space Agency’s new astronauts, Tim Peake, Andy Mogensen and Samantha Cristoforetti. Go here to listen to the astronaut podcast
Peake is the UK’s first ESA astronaut, Mogensen is the first Dane and Cristoforetti the first Italian woman, and second woman to be selected to the ESA astronaut corps. The other three ESA astronaut candidates are Italy’s Luca Parmitano, Germany’s Alexander Gerst and France’s Thomas Pesquet
Danish born Mogensen revealed himself to be a bit of a Hyperbola fan, listen here as he talks about how he hoped Hyperbola would get the astro scoop of the year and reveal the names of those selected. Oddly Hyperbola had predicted that a Dane could be among those selected and also this blog expected a women to be among the finalists
And so for this blog’s next prediction it will say, Cristoforetti should be the first of the new astronauts to fly. While officially the national agencies do not have a say in who flies when Italy has a bilateral relationship with NASA for International Space Station and that gives it its own opportunities for ISS exploitation, shall we say. And Italian Space Agency commissioner Enrico Saggese told Flightglobal that he would like Cristoforetti to fly as soon as possible
