Along with Sophie Adenot, Pablo Alvarez Fernandez, Raphael Liegeois, Marco Sieber, and Australian Space Agency astronaut candidate Katherine Bennell-Pegg, Ms. Coogan obtained astronaut certification following a year of intense basic astronaut training.

The astronauts are now qualified to go into space after obtaining the certification at ESA's European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.

After outperforming over 22,500 applications, astrophysicist Ms. Coogan—who holds two master's degrees from Durham University and a PhD in astronomy from Sussex—was chosen to participate in the ESA astronaut training programme in 2022.

She will be the third astronaut from the United Kingdom, joining Tim Peake, who visited the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015, and Helen Sharman, who became the first British astronaut in space in 1989.


Proficiency in space walking, flight engineering, robotics, life support systems, survival, and medical training were all part of basic astronaut training.

Pre-assignment and mission-specific training phases will now be undertaken by them, laying the groundwork for upcoming trips to the International Space Station and beyond.