• Question: How did Tim get picked to go on the ISS and what are his qualities?

    Asked by 812trn28 to COLFlight, Anne, Beth, Jon, Tom on 11 Oct 2015. This question was also asked by SpaldingHighSchool9S, XxXxX_FaZe_420_Bl4z3_XxXx, Elodie #SpaceInvasion, stargirl, oluchi40.
    • Photo: Columbus Flight Directors

      Columbus Flight Directors answered on 11 Oct 2015:

      Sergio:
      Hi!
      Tim was selected as an astronaut by ESA in 2009, together with other 5. They named their class “the shenaningans”.
      The selection was very hard, imagine that about 10 thousand people applied for this, and only 6 were selected!
      Tim’s qualities are a good mix of many: he’s an excellent engineer and pilot, he has very good fitness and also some very good survival skills. These are all important skills for astronauts.

      But in my opinion what impresses most of Tim is how kind and humble he is. He’s one of the few people in the world who will fly to space and stay there 6 months, and still he is so friendly and happy to learn from other people aboout their different expertise and specialties.
      I think that this makes him really special 🙂

    • Photo: Beth Healey

      Beth Healey answered on 15 Oct 2015:

      Hi guys!

      Tim is a really great guy and really friendly when I met him. His background as a pilot (with over 3000 hours flying time!) and survival instructor experience put him in a great position to be selected. However, it’s really competative!

      Why don’t you try some of the Astronaut selection tests to see if you have what it takes?!

      http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/European_Astronaut_Selection/Astronaut_selection_test_Try_this

      Good luck!

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