Joelle Renstrom is a science writer, space enthusiast, and teacher at Boston University.
Getting around in space is something like wearing ice skates.
Routine actions such as crossing a room lose their simplicity. All of a sudden, balance, the way muscles engage, and the speed with which one moves all complicate every step. To put it mildly, neither strapping on skates nor heading to outer space is easy. Yet people with disabilities who want to play hockey have had organizational support since the 1937 establishment of USA Hockey, which offers opportunities to players who have vision or hearing impairments, amputations, cognitive or development disabilities, and more.
Last month, more than 60 years after the first astronauts traveled into space and to the moon, John McFall, a former Paralympian athlete from the United Kingdom, became the first person with a disability to receive medical clearance by the European Space Agency (or any space agency) for long-term spaceflight. He got the go-ahead to train for a six-month stint on the International Space Station.
Space agencies such as NASA and the ESA have educational, physical, and mental criteria that astronauts must meet in order to be eligible for spaceflight. Given the stressors associated with microgravity, radiation exposure, tight quarters, and isolation, it makes sense to select people with hardy bodies and minds.
What that means, however, isn’t always straightforward. Not all physical disabilities prevent a person from staying healthy and productive in space, and people who have figured out how to live with their disabilities often demonstrate the resilience that space agencies are looking for in their astronauts.
Space agencies have long been interested in the effects of living in space on astronauts’ bodies. NASA has studied changes in eyesight, muscle mass, biomarkers for cancer and other diseases, sleep cycles, and diet. Until recently, no space agency included people with disabilities in their studies or assessments of astronaut readiness.
That changed in late 2022 when the ESA launched the Fly! Feasibility Study to assess the practicability of sending astronauts with disabilities into space. For the first time, differently abled astronauts were allowed to demonstrate that they could meet the criteria for spaceflight. McFall participated in the two-year study, which concluded that people with disabilities are capable of going to the ISS for six months as healthy, fully functional members of a crew.
The goal of the Fly! Feasibility Study was to expand the range of eligibility for astronauts with physical limitations that might have previously precluded them from flying. The study’s goal of “advancing inclusivity … and integrating diverse perspectives” into spaceflight underscores an idea essential to human exploration and progress: that a broader range of experiences begets a broader range of insights, thereby expanding knowledge.
If all scientists wanted was data and images from space, they could use rovers and satellites and not bother with the difficult business of putting humans on rockets. But scientists — and anyone who seeks to know more about the universe around us — want to learn about the human experience of being in space. That means we need to send humans, not just robots. And we need to send as wide a range of humans as possible.
Just as diversity matters on Earth, it also matters in space. Only a handful of humans have ever left this planet. Only a handful have worked aboard the ISS, conducting experiments that help us learn more about our planet, our solar system, and what happens to our minds and bodies when we live off-world. Only a handful have watched the Earth rise over the moon and have experienced the “overview effect” that facilitates a new perspective and appreciation for the only planet we’ve ever known.
At a time when America’s executive branch has declared war on all efforts to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, ESA’s embrace of diversity in space provides a much-needed boost. One never knows who will become a hero to a new generation of kids or who will snap the next photo that makes people see the planet or themselves in a new way. But thanks to the ESA and its push for inclusion, we’ll get to find out.