European Space Agency adds new astronauts in only fourth class since 1978

From left, Rosemary Cooga, Sophie Adenot, Raphael Liegeois, Pablo Alvarez Fernandez, Marco Sieber and Katherine Bennell-Pegg hold their certificates at the graduation ceremony at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, April 22, 2024. Marco Sieber of Switzerland talks to the Associated Press in a Columbus trainings module after the graduation ceremony at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, April 22, 2024.

For the past year, five fit, academically superior men and women have been spun in centrifuges, submerged for hours, deprived temporarily of oxygen, taught to camp in the snow, and schooled in physiology, anatomy, astronomy, meteorology, robotics, and Russian.