Up to four years of training before flying and a salary of 60,000 euros to start: this is what awaits the new Spanish astronaut

Pablo Álvarez from León changed his life last Wednesday. In a ceremony with Hollywood overtones, including the opening of the curtain, this 34-year-old, until now an aeronautical engineer at Airbus, was presented as one of the five chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA) for its new consignment of astronauts, the first since 2008. He will be recruited for a dream job surrounded by an aura so exclusive that the chosen ones seem almost touched by the gods, but in reality it is full of sacrifices and demands. To begin with, he will have to spend a year of training in Cologne (Germany) to really be considered an astronaut-he is not yet, he is still a candidate. Then several more years of preparation before being able to fly. Perhaps to the International Space Station (ISS); perhaps, with a lot of luck, to the future Lunar Gateway Station or to the Moon. His first salary will be around 60,000 euros per year, which will rise to 85,000 after his first space trip. More than enviable figures for many Spaniards but no fantasy, nothing to do with the stratospheric salaries of soccer players. Álvarez’s trajectory will be different from that of the other Leonese selected by ESA, Sara García Alonso. The biomedical researcher will continue on staff at the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), in the group of the scientist Mariano Barbacid, since she is part of the new reserve astronaut corps. She will only leave her usual job if she is required by the space agency for a mission in which her profile interests her. Of course, she will have to pass medical exams and specific training every year. Related News standard No Two Spaniards, a cancer researcher and an engineer, new astronauts for the European Space Agency Judith de Jorge Sara García Alonso will go to the reserve and Pablo Álvarez Fernández will be a career astronaut. Both are from Leon. The recruit will begin basic training in the spring of 2023 at the European Astronaut Center near Cologne, where he will spend twelve months. During that time, he will learn the basics of space flight, become familiar with the space station systems, and learn the ins and outs of the various transportation vehicles, such as those of the SpaceX company, in which ISS crew members currently travel. . And a novelty, NASA’s Artemis program systems to return to the Moon. In addition, he will undergo survival training, practice how to perform a spacewalk, and begin by learning special skills such as robotic operations and spacecraft rendezvous and docking. If nothing has changed after Russia’s erratic decisions in his space race, he too must learn Russian. Four years to fly After basic training, the young man from Leon will finally graduate as an ESA astronaut. He’ll already qualify for a mission, but that doesn’t have to happen right away. He will then enter another period of training, prior to the task, which will last according to the moment in which he is assigned the mission. He will train with ESA’s international partners in Houston (USA), Japan or Canada. Once assigned the mission, the engineer will spend more time with his crewmates, learning to work together according to each other’s role. As a general rule, it takes about four years before they travel to space for the first time. Pablo Álvarez will begin his career at ESA as a new recruit, who are generally paid at the A2 level, which corresponds to around 60,000 euros per year. After basic training, he will be promoted to grade A3, for which he will already receive between 70,000 and 75,000 euros. And after the first space flight, he will enter the A4 category, with salaries of about 85,000 euros. MORE INFORMATION noticia No NASA loses contact with the Orion capsule for 47 endless minutes noticia No The Artemis I mission ship ‘grazes’ the Moon in a heart-stopping flight The engineer could become the first Spaniard to set foot on the Moon. He acknowledges that it is a dream, but not impossible. Perhaps he has already taken the first step.