Pablo Álvarez Fernández
Pablo Álvarez Fernández was born in Spain in 1988.
Education
Pablo holds a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of León (Universidad de León), Spain, and graduated with a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Warsaw University of Technology (Politechnika Warszawska) in 2011.
Next to his mother tongue Spanish, Pablo is fluent in English, Polish and French.
Experience
After graduating university, Pablo was working as a structural engineer for several aircraft programmes, such as for Airbus and Safran in Spain, the UK and France between 2011 and 2017.
From 2017 to 2020, while working as an ExoMars rover mechanical architect at Airbus Defence and Space in the UK, his responsibilities included the development of the radiosotope heater unit integration procedure in conjunction with Russian Space Agency ROSCOSMOS and ESA, as well as being a test director during the environmental test campaign.
Furthermore, he was working on the design, development and testing of the different ExoMars rover bioseals to prevent biological contamination.
Before being selected as an ESA astronaut candidate in November 2022, Pablo was working as Project Manager for Airbus operations in Spain. In this capacity, he was supporting different industrial projects across several Airbus plants.
ESA experience
In November 2022, Pablo was selected as an ESA astronaut candidate. He commenced his one-year basic training programme in April 2023 and attained astronaut certification at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre on 22 April 2024, rendering him eligible for spaceflight assignments.
Access the video
Explore Pablo's story in this interview and our ESA Explores podcast, available on major platforms.