07 October 2024 , 11:07
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European Space Agency testing Paralympian sprinter to see how conditions in space would affect his prosthesis
When a colleague sent John McFall a job advert for would-be astronauts, his reaction was swift. “To be honest all I had in my head was: ‘It would be awesome to go to space.’”
Doing so, however, would entail shattering through a glass ceiling – one that has held firm during more than six decades of space exploration.
Even so, he pushed ahead. Three years after spotting the job posting from the European Space Agency, McFall is now on track to become the world’s first astronaut with a disability.
After losing his right leg at the age of 19 following a motorcycle accident, the Briton went on to become a Paralympian sprinter, winning bronze in Beijing, and later becoming a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon.
McFall threw himself into the agency’s gruelling selection process, making it through the six stages that ranged from hours-long psychomotor tests to panel interviews. In 2022 the agency announced he would join them in seeking to push the boundaries of space exploration by signing on to their years-long effort delving into whether someone with a physical disability can live and work in space.
John McFall Photograph: ESA
“It’s very exciting,” said McFall, 43, in an interview. “A common response is ‘why hasn’t this been done sooner?’”
There’s no guarantee that McFall will get to go into space. Instead the agency has methodically been putting him through the requirements of a six-month mission to the International Space Station. “We have to provide data to demonstrate that it is possible,” he said. “So it’s not like people have said, ‘you can’t do it, it’s not possible’. It’s more ‘we don’t doubt that this is possible, it’s just that no one has done it’.”
As space operations were designed for able-bodied people, the tests are aimed at exploring questions such as how McFall would move and stabilise himself in microgravity and how conditions in space would affect his prosthesis.
So far, all signs have suggested that space flight is feasible for McFall, sparking hope that he – or someone with a similar disability – could eventually train for an upcoming mission. “I would hope that between 2027 and the end of this decade, we’ll see a European astronaut with a physical disability as part of the International Space Station crew.”
While the agency’s findings are specific to McFall, part of the project’s aim is to blaze a path so that others with disabilities – whether similar to McFall’s or not – could potentially follow in his path.
“We’re challenging the narrative surrounding physical disability,” said McFall. “And doing that creates discussion and breaks down stigma.”
That discussion includes the question of how exactly to refer to McFall. Since starting with the European Space Agency, he’s sought to gently push back against the widely-used title of parastronaut. “I think it’s useful to have a conversation about it. What does it mean?” McFall asked.
“I’m not a para-surgeon, I’m a surgeon. I’m not a para-dad, I’m a dad,” he said, describing it as a “slippery slope” to add para in front of anything done by someone with a physical disability. “And I think that if we continue to use it, it probably continues to create a divide, which isn’t necessary.”
It’s a view that hints at the wider repercussions of his boundary-pushing efforts, which come as many with disabilities around the world continue to face deep discrimination. Data from across the EU suggests that people with disabilities are more likely to be unemployed and live below the poverty line.
In challenging people’s perception of what an astronaut looks like, McFall is hoping to chip away at some of this. “By doing this, it’s an opportunity to create more opportunities for people with disabilities in a number of different professional fields,” he said.
“My job is to make sure people have a well-rounded and informed definition of disability and what being disabled means,” he added. “It’s not the kind of 1950s, 1920s version of being disabled, you know?”