Closing in on new astronauts

From ESA Top News:

Following a first stage of psychological testing, there are now only 192 highly talented individuals still in with a chance of becoming the new astronauts in ESA's European Astronaut Corps. This first stage of computer-based psychological testing finished at the end of August and consisted of tests to evaluate the cognitive capabilities of the candidates, such as tests of memory, psycho-motor test, multitasking, linguistic skills, and various forms of visualisation-based tasks. Second stage The remaining 192 candidates from across Europe have now been invited to continue on to the second stage of psychological testing, which started at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany on 15 September and will continue until mid-December. Almost 10 000 people originally registered as astronaut candidates through the ESA website prior to the closing date of applications on 18 June 2008, of which 8413 fulfilled the initial application criteria. From these individuals 918 were chosen to take part in the first stage of psychological testing.

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