Pablo Álvarez Fernández (born 1988) is a Spanish

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

and

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

. In November 2022, he was selected by the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(ESA) as a full astronaut in the class of 2022 and it was in April 2024 when he graduated as such.

Career

Born in León, his family comes from

Omaña Omaña is a comarca of the province of León, autonomous community of Castile and León, in Spain. It is a historical region without administrative recognition. The traditional capital of the region is Murias de Paredes, which was the head of ...

, specifically from Sabugo and Garueña. In 2009, he graduated in aeronautical engineering from the

University of León The University of León (ULE) is a public university based in the city of León (Spain), León (Spain), with an additional campus in Ponferrada. The origins of the university can be traced back to 1843, with the creation of the Normal School of Te ...

and in 2011 he obtained a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the

Warsaw Institute of Technology The Warsaw University of Technology () is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professors (including 145 titular professors). The student body ...

. Between 2011 and 2017 he worked as a structural engineer on several aviation programs for

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

and

Safran Safran S.A. () is a French Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace, defence industry, defence and computer security, security corporation headquartered in Paris. It designs, develops and manufactures both commercial and military airc ...

in Spain, the United Kingdom and France, where he was involved in projects such as the

A350 The Airbus A350 is a flight length, long-range, wide-body twin-engine airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The initial A350 design proposed in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the Airbu ...

, the A380, the

Boeing 777 The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The 777 is the world's largest twinjet and the most-built wide-body airliner. ...

and the

COMAC C919 The Comac C919 is a narrow-body airliner developed by Chinese aircraft manufacturer Comac. The development program was launched in 2008. Production began in December 2011, with the first prototype being rolled out on 2 November 2015; the m ...

. Between 2017 and 2020 he worked as a mechanical architect for the

Rosalind Franklin rover ''Rosalind Franklin'', previously known as the ExoMars rover, is a planned robotic Mars rover, part of the international ExoMars programme led by the European Space Agency (ESA). The rover is named after Rosalind Franklin, a British chemist a ...

of the

ExoMars ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is an astrobiology programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). The goals of ExoMars are to search for signs of past life on Mars, investigate how the Martian water and geochemical environment varies, investigate ...

mission at

Airbus Defence and Space Airbus Defence and Space is a division of Airbus SE. Formed in 2014 in the restructuring of European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS), Airbus SE comprises the former Airbus Military, Astrium, and divisions. Contributing 21% of Airbus reven ...

in the United Kingdom, where he was responsible of the design and development of the structure and the installation of the different scientific instruments with which the vehicle is equipped, as well as its integration into the landing platform, in addition to being a test director during the environmental test campaign. He also worked on the design, development and testing of the different seals of the

rover to avoid biological contamination. In 2020, he joined Airbus Spain as a

project manager A project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of the Project planning, planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined star ...

. In November 2022, he was selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) as a member of its 2022 astronaut promotion, in which the Leonese Sara García Alonso was also selected. On 22 April 2024, he graduated as an astronaut from the ESA in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, where he trained for a year, among a class of more than 22,500 candidates. Thus, he became the second Spanish astronaut and the first in 31 years since the graduation of

Pedro Duque Pedro Francisco Duque Duque, Order of Friendship, OF, Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration", OMSE (born Madrid, 14 March 1963) is a Spanish astronaut and aeronautics engineer who served as Ministry of Science (Spain), minister of Science from ...

in 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez Fernandez, Pablo Spanish astronauts Living people 1988 births 21st-century Spanish engineers People from León, Spain European Space Agency personnel