Another three new ESA astronauts — Rosemary Coogan of the U.K., Spaniard Pablo Álvarez Fernández and Swiss national Marco Sieber — will all fly before 2030, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the standing team of serving ESA space explorers — including France’s Thomas Pesquet and Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti — may yet fly again on missions to the Gateway space station or even to the lunar surface.
Instead of Europe, the United States recently picked Japan to ride along with NASA on the next mission to the lunar surface as part of a broad cooperation deal on defense and economics, although ESA still hopes to secure a place on a future mission to the moon.