THE para-athlete turned astronaut, John McFall 43, may soon be the first disabled person to go into space — and he credits the Paralympics with helping to challenge perceptions about what people with disabilities can achieve.
After a motorcycle accident that resulted in the amputation of his right leg at age 19, McFall learned to run again and became a professional track and field athlete.
The Team GB sprinter won a bronze medal in the 100m T42 at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and later went on to work as a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon.
McFall became the world’s first “parastronaut” in 2022 when the European Space Agency (ESA) announced a new class of astronauts in training. He took part in the ESA’s “Fly!” feasibility study, which assessed the challenges a person with a disability might face in spaceflight.
The study, he told scientific journal Nature last week, “has so far demonstrated that it is technically feasible for someone with a physical disability like mine to fly into space and live and work as a fully integrated member of the International Space Station (ISS) crew on a long-duration mission.”
With part of the study expected to be completed by the end of the year, McFall hopes ESA will be able to “put someone with a physical disability in flight,” he added.
“I hope to have the opportunity to fly in the future. That would be tremendous. And I also hope to be able to plant the seed to leave a legacy, to study the feasibility of flying with a wider range of disabilities,” said the 43-year-old.
ESA highlighted in a press release that the study, in which McFall participated in winter and sea survival training and zero-gravity flights, marked “a significant milestone in the journey toward inclusion in space exploration.”
“To date, the Fly! study has not identified any obstacles that would prevent an astronaut with a disability like John’s from participating in a long-duration mission to the ISS, which typically lasts six months,” the agency said in a statement.
McFall pointed to the Paralympics as an example of how sport can change social perceptions about people with disabilities. “Elite athletes inspire a lot of people. A lot of people play sports and have this admiration for what it takes to compete at that level,” he explained.
“From a Paralympic perspective, it’s extremely important to connect with a wider audience, to raise awareness about what people with physical disabilities are capable of doing,” he said. He added: “In the same way, I think you can consider being an astronaut a difficult and challenging job. So there’s this admiration for having someone with a physical disability in that position.”
At an ESA press conference last month, McFall added that his career as a Paralympic athlete — along with his experience of undergoing a traumatic amputation and his background in science and medicine — contributed to his current goal.
“I think all of this has prepared me very well to help bridge the gap between this ambition that ESA has and my background,” he said, “to try to achieve this goal of potentially being the first person with a physical disability to become an astronaut.”
This content was originally published in Paralympic athlete could be the first person with a disability to go to space on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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