Thomas Pesquet | |
|---|---|
_cropped.jpg) Official portrait, 2020 | |
| Born | Thomas Gautier Pesquet (1978-02-27)27 February 1978 (age 47) |
| Status | Active |
| Occupations | |
| Space career | |
| ESA astronaut | |
Time in space | 396 days 11 hours 34 minutes |
| Selection | 2009 ESA Group |
TotalEVAs | 6 |
Total EVA time | 39 hours, 54 minutes |
| Missions | Soyuz MS-03 (Expedition 50/51)SpaceX Crew-2 (Expedition 65/66) |
Mission insignia |      |
| Website | thomaspesquet |
Thomas Gautier Pesquet (French pronunciation:[tɔmɑɡotjepɛskɛ]; born 27 February 1978) is a Frenchaerospace engineer,pilot,European Space Agencyastronaut, actor,[1] musician, and writer. Pesquet was selected by ESA as a candidate in May 2009,[2] and he successfully completed his basic training in November 2010.[3] From November 2016 to June 2017, Pesquet was part ofExpedition 50 andExpedition 51 as a flight engineer.[4] Pesquet returned to space in April 2021 on board theSpaceXCrew Dragon for a second six-month stay on theISS.
Pesquet was born inRouen, France, and considersDieppe his hometown. He is the younger of two brothers. Pesquet is a black belt in judo and lists basketball, jogging, swimming andsquash as his favourite sports. He is an outdoor and adventure activities enthusiast, and enjoys mountain biking,kite surfing, sailing, skiing and mountaineering. He also has extensive experience with, and holds advanced licenses in, both scuba diving andparachuting. His other interests include travelling, playing the saxophone and reading. He is a supporter of theFrench football team,[5] as well as theFrench rugby team and theStade Toulousain.[6]
Pesquet graduated from theLycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen,[7] France, in 1996.
In 2001, he received a master's degree from theÉcole nationale supérieure de l'aéronautique et de l'espace inToulouse, France, majoring in space systems and space vehicle mechanics. He spent his final year before graduation at theÉcole Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada, as an exchange student on the Aeronautics and Space Master.
Pesquet graduated from the Air France flight school in 2006. This led to anAirline Transport Pilot License-Instrument Rating (ATPL-IR).
He speaks French, English, Spanish, Chinese, German and Russian, and is a member of theFrench Aeronautics and Astronautics Association (3AF), and of theAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
From October 2001, Pesquet worked as aspacecraft dynamics engineer on remote sensing missions forGMV, S.A. in Madrid, Spain.
Between 2002 and 2004, Pesquet worked at the French space agency,CNES, as a research engineer on space missions autonomy. He also carried out various studies on future Europeanground segment design and European space technology harmonization. From late 2002, he was a representative of CNES atCCSDS, the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, working on the topic of cross-support between international space agencies.
A private pilot, he was selected in 2004 forAir France's flight training programme. He went on to become a commercial pilot for the French airline, where he started flying theAirbus A320 in 2006. He has logged more than 2000 hours flying time on various commercial airliners, and has qualified as atype-ratingflight instructor on the A320, and as aCrew Resource Management instructor.
In 2018, Pesquet gained hisAirbus A310 type rating and is qualified as aNovespace Zero-G aircraft pilot.
Pesquet was selected as aEuropean Space Agency (ESA) astronaut in May 2009. He joined ESA in September 2009 and successfully completed Astronaut Basic Training in November 2010.Pesquet is the youngest member of theEuropean Astronaut Corps, and the last of the ESA astronaut class of 2009 to arrive in space.
On 10 June 2014, NASA announced that Pesquet would serve as anaquanaut aboard theAquariusunderwater laboratory during theNEEMO 18 undersea exploration mission, which began on 21 July 2014 and lasted nine days.[8][9] He has also taken part inESA's CAVES[10] underground course in 2011[11] and NASA'sSEATEST II mission in 2013, furthering his experience in exploration.
In 2014, Pesquet was chosen by ESA for a six-month mission to the International Space Station starting in November 2016.[12] He was also the backup to ESA astronautAndreas Mogensen who flew to the International Space Station on a 10-day flight in September 2015.
In 2023, Pesquet participated in theESA PANGAEA training organized by theEuropean Space Agency, held between Italy (Bletterbach canyon), Germany (Noerdlingen-Ries crater) and Spain (Lanzarote Island)[13][14][15][16] together with the colleaguesTakuya Onishi andJessica Wittner.
_Thomas_Pesquet.jpg)
Pesquet launched from theBaikonur Cosmodrome onboardSoyuz MS-03 on November 17, 2016. He spent six months on theInternational Space Station as part ofExpedition 50/51. Arriving at the ISS on November 19, 2016, he was the first French astronaut sinceLéopold Eyharts helped install theColumbus European laboratory module duringExpedition 16. His arrival marked the beginning of the European Proxima mission.[17]
The Proxima mission included 50 science experiments forESA andCNES. The mission was named afterProxima Centauri, continuing the French astronauts' tradition of naming the missions after stars and constellations. The X inside the logo symbolizes that Pesquet is the tenth French astronaut as well as the unknown. The Proxima mission name was chosen in a competition, with the winning name given by 13-year-old Samuel Planas from Toulouse, France. The mission logo was designed by Thomas Pesquet and Karen Oldenburg.[18]
Pesquet performed his firstEVA with astronautShane Kimbrough on January 13, 2017. During the EVA, they prepared the infrastructure to replace the ISS batteries. The EVA lasted for 5 hours and 58 minutes.[19]
On March 23, 2017, Pesquet performed his second career EVA withShane Kimbrough. The main objective was to prepare the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) for installation of the second International Docking Adapter (IDA), which will accommodate future commercial crew vehicle dockings. The PMA-3 provides the pressurized interface between the station modules and the docking adapter. Expedition 50 Commander Kimbrough and Pesquet disconnected cables and electrical connections on PMA-3 to prepare for its robotic move on March 26, 2017. PMA-3 will be moved from the port side of theTranquility module to the space-facing side of the Harmony module, where it will become home for the docking adapter, which will be delivered on a future flight of a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship. The spacewalkers also installed on the starboard zero truss (ITS) a new computer relay box equipped with advanced software for the adapter.The two spacewalkers lubricated the latching end effector on the Canadarm2 robotic arm, inspected a radiator valve suspected of a small ammonia leak and replaced cameras on the Japanese segment of the outpost. Radiators are used to shed excess heat that builds up through normal space station operation. The EVA lasted for 6 hours and 34 minutes.[20]
On June 2, 2017, MS-03 undocked from the ISS, carrying Pesquet and Novitskiy back to Earth, concluding a 196-day mission in space.Peggy Whitson remained on the ISS and returned onSoyuz MS-04. MS-03 touched down just over 3 hours after undocking, concluding Pesquet's first spaceflight. Pesquet has spent 196 days,17 hours and 49 minutes in space.[21]
On 11 March 2020, ESA announced in a blog post that Pesquet would return to the ISS in the second half of 2021 for a second six-month stay, in which he would become the first European astronaut to launch on board an AmericanCommercial Crew Vehicle.[22] And on July 28, 2020, Pesquet was officially assigned to theSpaceX Crew-2 as a mission specialist alongsideNASA astronautsShane Kimbrough commander of theCrew Dragon,Megan McArthur the pilot, andJAXA astronautAkihiko Hoshide, the other mission specialist.[23] Few hours before the announcement and after a competition to name Pesquet's mission,[24] Pesquet revealed his second mission name asAlpha, afterAlpha Centauri, the nearest star system to the Sun, following the French mission naming tradition.[25]
Crew Dragon Endeavour was launched on 23 April 2021 at 09:49:02UTC, and docked to theInternational Space Station on 24 April at 09:08 UTC.[26] Once on board the station, they joined ISSExpedition 65.[27][25]
During this mission, Pesquet performed 4EVAs. The first three EVAs were conducted withShane Kimbrough on the 16, 20, and 25 of June with the tasks to install the first twoRoll Out Solar Arrays (iROSA) on the station.[28][29] The fourth EVA was originally planned to be performed byAkihiko Hoshide andMark Vande Hei, but due to a medical issue for Vande Hei, Pesquet exited for the sixth time of his career the ISS to perform a spacewalk.[30] During this spacewalk, he became the European record holder for most cumulative hours spent spacewalking, with a total of 39 hours and 54 minutes.
On October 4, 2021, he received the command of the ISS fromAkihiko Hoshide, making him the first French astronaut to command a space vehicle.[31] He transferred the command of the station to his Russian colleagueAnton Shkaplerov on November 6, 2021.[32]
Crew-2 landed in theGulf of Mexico on 9 November 2021, after 199 days in space.[33]
On 12 April 2021, Thomas Pesquet was nominated Goodwill Ambassador for theFood and Agriculture Organization of theUnited Nations.[34]
At theclosing ceremony of the2020 Summer Olympics, during the "handoff" portion introducingParis as the host of the2024 Summer Olympics, Pesquet performed the closing bars of the French national anthemLa Marseillaise on a saxophone while aboard the International Space Station.[35]
In 2020 he was also selected as a Karman Fellow for his work done in space exploration.[36]
Wanting to transmit his passion for space, he wrote an autobiography "Ma vie sans gravité"(My life without gravity, gravity and seriousness being the same word in french). He also portrayed himself in the filmsProxima (2019)[37] andHawa (2022).
| Preceded by | ISS Commander (Expedition 65/66) 4 October to 8 November 2021 | Succeeded by |
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