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| Marco Sieber |
Marco Sieber, born in Bienne in 1989, touches his dream with his fingertips. In April, he will begin his training for astronauts at the European Space Agency Training Center (ESA) in Cologne, Germany. Always fascinated by the world of space, the missions carried out by Claude Nicolier and aeronautics, he was recently accepted into the European Space Agency (ESA) on November 23, 2022. His file was selected from among 22,500 applications, reports the Swiss newspaper in Albanian Le Canton27.ch.
Three years ago, Marco Sieber became an emergency doctor for Air-Glaciers. A former paratrooper in the army, he holds a private pilot's license. He has worked as a helicopter emergency doctor and anesthesiologist in Bern and Interlaken (BE). The Albanian Swiss newspaper Le Canton27.ch has learned that the young Austrian Swiss was also the chief medical officer at Swisscoy in Kosovo. In addition to German and Swiss German, he speaks fluent English and French.
The new class of astronaut candidates from the European Space Agency (ESA), including Swiss Marco Sieber, were "enthusiastic" at the end of the first month of training. They will be officially consecrated in the spring of 2024.
The new ESA flight was presented to the media on Wednesday at a press conference at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. In addition to Marco Sieber, it includes Belgian Raphaël Liégeois, Frenchwoman Sophie Adenot, Spaniard Pablo Álvarez Fernández, and Briton Rosemary Coogan.
Their basic training is expected to continue until the end of May 2024. From 2025 to 2030, each of the five is expected to have had the opportunity to perform at least one long mission (possibly six months) on the International Space Station (ISS). And why not, one or more of them may participate in the Artemis lunar exploration program from 2030, preparing for a future mission to Mars.
"I am particularly pleased with the practical learning," said Marco Sieber before the press. The first month was mainly spent on biology and physics lessons as well as sports training, added the 34-year-old doctor from Bern.
ESA's new career astronaut group was announced last November after a selection process that included 22,500 applications, including 668 from Switzerland.
In the footsteps of Claude Nicollier: Marco Sieber graduated from high school in Burgdorf (BE) before obtaining a doctorate in medicine from the University of Bern, specializing in robotic surgery. At the time of his appointment, he was working as a medical assistant in urology at the Centre hospitalier de Bienne (BE).