On February 14th the European Space Agency provided an update on its Fly! Feasibility Study. In the update, the agency announced that astronaut John McFall was cleared for flight to the International Space Station!

The Fly! Feasibility Study was kicked off in November 2022 to explore if an astronaut with a physical disability could embark on a long-duration mission to the International Space Station. Over eighty topics are said to be included in the study in areas such as spacecraft operations and training. Speaking on hardware and efforts related to the study, McFall stated:

"I have been connected with a company called Ottobock for well over a decade, they're a German global market leader in human bionics. I've been using their prosthetic hardware for a number of years and they have been designing wearable technology for over a hundred years . . . at the center of their business is making lives better by what they do. I think this is something that's really important with the message that we're doing, that we're sending out, here at ESA."
"With regards to the nuts and bolts of the hardware certification, anything that flies to the space station . . . has to be certified to fly, and that is a long rigorous detailed process. So we've been working with our independent safety office at ESA with our independent safety engineers closely with Ottobock to achieve work toward certification. By October this year we're hoping to get to what we call phase two of the safety review process so that should a flight opportunity become available we are positioned ready to complete that certification process without rushing. It gives us time to develop solutions to problems that we might come across.
"In fact some of the things we have identified so far in working through this certification process we have already developed a couple of technologies, which are going to trickle down and have benefits for prosthetic users in wider society. . . This is very much what we're about with this concept of space for Earth, that what we do in space also benefits people on Earth"

Through the study, the European Space Agency is aiming to assist in the development of innovative solutions for people with physical disabilities facing space-related challenges, such as microgravity adaptation, fitness, and technology integration. For the in-space phase of Fly!, McFall mentioned that there are opportunities for academia and industry to submit proposals for experiments that could be conducted during a disabled astronaut's mission.

John McFall, a reserve astronaut for the European Space Agency, is the project expert for the Fly! study. McFall was selected as an astronaut in 2022 and has been undergoing training alongside the study since.

Prior to being selected as an astronaut, McFall won a bronze medal at the Beijing Paralympic Games 2008, became the International Amputee and Wheelchair Sports Federation 100m and 200m world champion in 2007, among several other medals. Alongside being a former Paralympian, McFall is also a surgeon, having obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, along with receiving a handful of medical awards.

A mission for McFall has not been selected yet, but he is in consideration for upcoming missions along with the European Space Agency's entire astronaut corps. Additionally as an astronaut from the United Kingdom, he could fly onboard an all-UK astronaut mission with Axiom Space as the company signed an agreement with the UK government back in October 2023.