PARIS: British surgeon and former Paralympian John McFall has been medically cleared for a mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), making him the first astronaut with a physical disability to reach this milestone, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced on Friday.
McFall, 43, lost a leg in a motorbike accident at 19 but later became an elite athlete.
Since joining ESA’s astronaut reserve in 2022, he has been part of a study assessing whether a person with a prosthesis can participate in space missions.
“This is way bigger than me – this is a cultural shift,” McFall said in a press conference, adding that he simply had to meet the same medical and performance standards as other astronauts.
While no mission date has been set, ESA’s director of human and robotic exploration Daniel Neuenschwander confirmed that McFall is now “an astronaut like everybody else, waiting for a mission assignment.”
The feasibility study will now focus on hardware adaptations, including prosthetics, to address challenges in microgravity.
McFall noted that advancements from this research could benefit prosthetic users worldwide. – AFP
