John McFall suffered a motorcycle accident when he was 19 and his right leg had to be amputated above the knee. He went on to compete in the Paralympic Games, where he won bronze for the UK in the 100-meter dash in 2008. McFall also became an orthopedic and trauma surgeon. Now he has another accomplishment to add to his resume: astronaut. The European Space Agency (ESA) hired McFall into its astronaut corps in 2022, making him the first individual with a physical disability to become an astronaut, or a "parastronaut."
McFall has not yet been selected to go into space, and there's no guarantee that he will, but the possibility is there. He took part in a feasibility study to study space travel for someone missing a part of one leg. In an interview about his experience, he explains that people with missing lower limbs or lower-limb paralysis might even have advantages in microgravity. However, ESA wants to know what accommodations will need to be made for astronauts with limb differences. Read the interview with McFall at Scientific American. -via Kottke
(Image credit: ESA/P. Sebirot)
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