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The new Swiss astronaut Marco Sieber will one day fly to the ISS. For this he had to do a lot and prove himself.
“You never lose your homeland,” says Marco Sieber, referring to his future place of work. It is difficult for him to move away from his homeland in the canton of Bern – but who has the chance to be trained as an astronaut by the European Space Agency ESA?
The 33-year-old from Bern will soon be walking 400 kilometers north, to Cologne for training, and then another 400 kilometers will be added vertically – when he one day hovers above the earth in the International Space Station ISS.
Armstrong and Nicollier as role models
Even as a child he was fascinated by space travel, says Sieber in an interview with SRF News. He played astronaut with his brother: “We stacked chairs on top of each other, sat on them and felt like we were sitting in a rocket.”
The images of the first moon mission in 1969 from books and films shaped him. The space pioneers and the Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier were great role models. “I looked up to them and dreamed of doing the same as them.”
Always aim in the back of your mind
Sieber first heard about the astronaut selection in 2008 during an internship during his medical studies. He found out that Esa carries out this selection on a regular basis. “I then kept an eye on it and waited until there was this opportunity again.”
Sieber had to be patient for a few years, because Esa only opened a new selection process in 2021. He didn’t work directly towards the selection process, says Sieber, but he did do various things with this goal in mind. So he got his private pilot’s license. “Of course, for the joy of doing it, but also a bit in terms of the fact that it can be an advantage when applying,” explains Sieber.
Over 22,000 people have applied to Esa. The space agency examined the applicants in six stages. Sieber found the first test round to be very stressful. First, computer-based tests were used to test the ability to react and the ability to think mathematically and logically, he reports. “You couldn’t really prepare yourself.”
After each step I thought: ‹This was probably the last one›
Psychological interviews and extensive medical examinations followed later. “After each step I thought: ‘That was probably the last one’.” But Sieber made progress in the process.
During this time, it was important for him to exchange ideas with friends and the other candidates. “It was very collegial, there was no competition,” he says.
At the end of the selection process, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher interviewed him. Aschbacher says about Sieber: “He was very professional, very focused. We felt that he had all the qualities, both personal and astronaut.”
The 17-strong class will start their training at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne in spring 2023. He is aware that he will probably have less contact with “his people” at home.
But the joy of the new training outweighs it. “You get to know space research, the systems of the ISS and the various rockets. It’s all incredibly exciting, »says Sieber.