‘I lost my leg and thought I’d never walk again – now I’m going to space’

John McFall already has a long Wikipedia page.

He’s a Paralympian, a sprinter, an NHS orthopaedic surgeon and a former fitness instructor who has dabbled in mountain biking, climbing and guitar.

The next entry on his page? Becoming the world’s first disabled astronaut in orbit.

The government announced on Tuesday that John, 45, is one step closer to achieving this goal after striking a deal with the US commercial space company Vast.

The UK Space Agency is now securing sponsorships to fund a spaceflight for the father-of-three from Hampshire as soon as 2027.

Speaking to Metro while wearing his European Space Agency (ESA) uniform, John says the first thing he’ll do in space is look back at Earth.

‘I want to try to catch a glimpse of our beautiful planet Earth as we go further and further from it,’ John says.

‘It’s called the overview effect,’ he adds of the often spiritual shift that some have when seeing Earth – the planet that contains all of life and millennia of human history – as a lonely dot in an endless expanse.

John was never one of those kids who told everyone he wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up.

‘It seemed so far away,’ he says.

‘I was more the kid who wanted to go and run around and do crazy things: join the army, live in the jungle, jump out of aeroplanes and camp on mountains.’

‘When I lost my leg, I didn’t think adventures were possible’

John was a sprinter in his youth, but after losing his right leg in a motorcycle accident as a teen in Thailand, he had to learn to run again.

And run he did: He won bronze in the 100 metres in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, among other medals and trophies.

The Paralympian later trained as an NHS surgeon who specialises in bones, joints and muscles.

In other words, John has always had his sights set high – and now they’re even higher. Really high. About 1,200 miles up high.

The ESA recruited John in 2022 as the agency looked to diversify its pool of astronauts.

No, he didn’t apply to be an astronaut on Indeed. A fellow surgeon suggested he’s just the man space officials were looking for.

‘When I lost my leg, I didn’t think living some adventures was possible anymore,’ John says.

‘To do that sort of fun operational-based stuff, where you live in hostile environments and do cool stuff and get paid for it.

‘So, when I saw this opportunity, I was like, well, why not? Why not apply?’

John, alongside 16 others, was chosen from about 22,500 applicants.

He could be sent to Vast’s Haven-1, the world’s first commercial space station.

Onboard, he’ll research how being away from gravity impacts the human body.

John’s findings could help disabled people back on Earth, such as developing lighter prosthetics or understanding osteoporosis, a condition that thins and weakens bones.

Few people have experienced life beyond our own planet, so we don’t know that much about how this alien environment can change us.

In the freefall of the cosmos, all the liquid in our bodies sloshes around and ends up in places it shouldn’t be. Bones and muscles weaken, faces puff and eyeballs are squished.

This is why John is undergoing years of astronaut training in Cologne, Germany.

‘If you go to the International Space Station, you need to be able to use the hardware – toilet included,’ he says.

John is aware that he’s the ‘world’s first’ disabled astronaut, but stresses that he also just wants to be a ‘good astronaut’.

‘The message that comes out from that – challenging the narrative surrounding what people with physical disabilities are capable of – is a great byproduct of the adventure,’ he adds.

Humans are increasingly readying themselves for life beyond our home planet. Nasa’s Artemis mission hopes to bring people to the moon for the first time since 1972.

If all goes to plan, officials want to construct lunar research stations by 2032 and eventually 3D-print entire neighbourhoods on the dusty orb.

And you can count on John being there. ‘This is less sci-fi and more real,’ he says, ‘so I think within my working lifetime we will be back on the moon.

‘I’d bite your arm off for a ticket to the moon.’

Would Mars, as Nasa officials, scientists and billionaire-types alike hope, be next? Probably, John says.

His colleague, reserve astronaut Dr Meganne Christian, previously told Metro that setting up camp on the moon will act as a trial run for Mars.

‘I wouldn’t rule anything out,’ John says.

The ESA told Metro: ‘ESA is actively supporting the development of a more inclusive and accessible Space and wishes all the best to John McFall.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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