Mr McFall, 43, who was born in Surrey and grew up in Somerset, had his right leg amputated when he was 19 after a motorbike accident. After learning to run again, he became a professional athlete, winning bronze in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics in the 100 metres T42 event.
He also retrained as a doctor, working in the NHS for several years, and has recently completed his final exams specialising as an orthopaedic surgeon.
Despite being put through numerous tests during training, Mr McFall said the biggest challenge had nothing to do with his disability, but rather suffering seasickness while training in the Baltic.
“Sea survival was the most uncomfortable because despite it being in the Baltic, it was still about 30 degrees and we were wearing full neoprene hooded gloved suits and it was absolutely boiling,” he said.
“Being in this twelve man emergency raft doing emergency medical procedures. That was pretty uncomfortable.
“And when you’re inside the raft, you can’t see the horizon and you’re generally going up and down on the water so there was a little bit of nausea and the environment was quite difficult to work in, and that was probably the most uncomfortable, but it was unrelated to my disability.”
The feasibility study, named Fly!, was designed to ensure that space exploration is not limited by physical disability.
Jerome Reineix, the Fly! feasibility study manager, said: “We are really glad to announce that at this stage our work has identified that there are no technical showstoppers at this stage to fly in John McFall on the long duration missions.”
Daniel Neuenschwander, director of human and robotic exploration at ESA, added: “A key conclusion is that there is no fundamental difference with another crew member for a long duration mission.”