She will soon begin to be trained to the highest level of standards specified by partners of the International Space Station, at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. Following the 12 months of training, Rosemary, alongside the four other career astronauts selected by ESA, will enter the next Space Station training phase. Once assigned to a mission, their training will be tailored to specialised mission tasks.
Who is Dr Rosemary Coogan?
Rosemary holds two master’s degrees from Durham University. In 2013 she completed her undergraduate master’s degree in Physics, and in 2015 she received her master’s degree in Astronomy, where she conducted research on gamma-ray emission from black holes.
As if this was not enough, in 2019 Rosemary graduated with a doctorate in Astronomy from the University of Sussex. During her doctorate, she spent a year as a visiting scientist in Paris, two weeks as a visiting astronomer at a Hawaiian observatory and travelled to other countries to present her findings at several international conferences.
"I really wanted to get hands on with contributing and learning the most that we can from space"
Dr rosemary coogan
In an interview with ESA, Rosemary talks about how her interest in becoming an Astronaut came about; “Space has always fascinated me. My current job is to actually look at how galaxies grow and evolve with time, but I particularly applied to the space programme because I really wanted to get hands on with contributing and learning the most that we can from space”.
Professor Paula Chadwick, Head of the Department of Physics, Durham University has said: “Rosemary was a super student and we’re so thrilled that she has been selected as one of ESA’s new generation of astronauts…It will be fantastic to see the knowledge and learning she acquired at Durham be put into practice and we will be watching her progress with great interest and pride. Congratulations Rose!”
Out of the 17 new candidates chosen by the ESA, 3 of the applicants are from the UK. These include Meganne Christian, John McFall and Rosemary Coogan.