John McFall is the world's first disabled astronaut (Credit: Sebastiaan ter Burg from Utrecht, The Netherlands/ CC BY 2.0/ Wikimedia Commons)

On November 23, 2022, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced its first new class of astronaut trainees in 13 years. The 17 candidates were selected from a pool of 22,500 applicants. They include five career astronauts, 11 reserve astronauts, and John McFall — the world's first astronaut with a disability.