No Easy Way From The Earth To The Stars

The European Space Agency have announced their Class of 2022, a group of Astronauts who they hope will train for missions which include the construction of a new outpost that will orbit the moon, alongside missions to the lunar surface itself.
The selection process began in February 2021 and part of me thinks i would like to have thrown my hat into the ring although i knew full well that i wouldn't get past the first stage but i would be able to legitimately call myself a Space Cadet forever afterwards but what exactly does it take to be an astronaut?
The initial ESA intake was 23,000 European only applicants with the largest applications coming from Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands and the UK and the first sift was for people of a certain age range and held a couple of science degrees in science and one at Master’s level or above which cut the list of names down to 17,000.
From these it was whittled down to 1,550 who had 'relevant experience in a similar field' and these went on to the next stage which was classroom tests in Maths and Physics and psychometric and aptitude tests which took the number down to 400 who underwent more in-depth psychological evaluations and were observed playing group games as part of the assessment screening.  
The remaining 91 now underwent a medical evaluation designed to make sure the attendants held a very low risk of getting seriously ill on mission or having a major medical event in the next 15 years.
Finally, after 18 months, the five successful candidates for the Class of 22 were a Spanish Aeronautical engineer, a British Astronomer, a Belgian Neuroscientist, a Swiss Anaesthesiologist and another Brit, an Orthopaedic surgeon and there are also 11 'reserve' astronauts.
As i don't think a Cycling Proficiency Badge and a certificate for swimming 50m would have got me through the first sift then i was quite right to withhold my initial application but then the ESA saying is 'non est ad astra mollis e terris via' or there is no easy way from the Earth to the Stars and these guys have
definitely earned it.