ESA title
Astronaut

Thomas Pesquet

Thomas Pesquet was born in Rouen, France, on 27 February 1978. He was launched to the International Space Station for his first six-month mission, Proxima, in November 2016. Thomas's second mission to the Space Station, known as Alpha, was from April to November 2021.

Biography

Experience

From April to September 2001, Thomas was a trainee engineer with Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France, where he developed a satellite system design tool using concurrent engineering techniques.

From October 2001, he worked as a spacecraft dynamics engineer on remote sensing missions for GMV S.A. in Madrid, Spain.

Between 2002 and 2004, Thomas worked at the French space agency, CNES, as a research engineer on space mission autonomy. He also carried out studies on future European ground segment design and European space technology harmonisation. From late 2002, he was a CNES representative at the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, working on cross-support between international space agencies.

An avid private pilot in his spare time, Thomas was selected in 2004 for Air France’s flight training programme. He went on to become a commercial pilot for the airline, where he started flying the Airbus A320 in 2006. Having logged more than 2300 flight hours on commercial airliners, he became a type rating instructor on the A320 and a Crew Resource Management instructor.

Thomas was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. He joined ESA in September 2009 and completed basic training in November 2010. After graduation, he worked as a Eurocom, communicating with astronauts during spaceflights from the mission control centre. He was also in charge of future projects at the European Astronaut Centre, including initiating cooperation with new partners such as China.

To be ready for a space mission, he received further technical and operational training in Europe, Russia and the USA: on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, on the US and Russian spacesuits, and on Space Station systems. He took part in exploration training courses: living and working underground on ESA’s CAVES training course in 2011, and underwater on NASA’s Seatest-2 mission.

On 17 March 2014, Thomas was assigned to his first long-duration mission on the International Space Station. He was launched to the International Space Station for this six-month Proxima mission, as a flight engineer for Expeditions 50 and 51, on 17 November 2016.

Thomas' second spaceflight was announced on 28 July 2020. He traveled to the International Space Station on the second SpaceX Crew Dragon mission together with JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and pilot Megan McArthur. The mission is called Alpha, after Alpha Centauri, the closest stellar system to Earth, following the French tradition to name space missions after stars or constellations. The mission assignment was the first time a European flew to the Space Station in the Crew Dragon, and the first time from USA in over a decade.

When Thomas is not in space or training for his next mission, he enjoys basketball, jogging, swimming, squash and outdoor sports such as mountain biking, kite surfing, sailing, skiing and mountaineering. He also has extensive experience in scuba diving and skydiving and is a black belt in judo. Thomas' other interests include travelling, playing the saxophone and reading.

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ESA missions

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Thomas Pesquet is a European Space Agency astronaut of French nationality. He spent six-months on the International Space Station between November 2016 and June 2017 and again between April and November 2021. Thomas served as a flight engineer for Expeditions 50 and 51. He previously worked as an aerospace engineer, and is also an airline pilot for Air France.

Total days in Space

396

Thomas Pesquet

(English) Second commercial mission launch to International Space Station no earlier than 20 April

Leider ist der Eintrag nur auf Amerikanisches Englisch und Französisch verfügbar.

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Thomas Pesquet

(English) Browse Thomas’ pictures of Earth and more… you might find your favourite spot on our planet!

(English) Browse all Thomas Pesquet’s pictures on a map of the world and more.

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Thomas Pesquet

Thomas starts training for second space mission

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet has his bags packed for Houston, USA, and at the end of this month, he’ll begin training for ESA’s next mission to the International Space Station.

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Thomas Pesquet

Thomas‘ underwater adventure

Over the next two weeks ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronaut Drew Feustel and Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai will take part in a new NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) mission off the coast of California, USA, to assess concepts for undersea training that will aid our next steps on the Moon.

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Thomas Pesquet

Thomas Pesquet returns to Earth

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet landed on the steppe of Kazakhstan today with Russian commander Oleg Novitsky in their Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft after six months in space. Touchdown was at 14:10 GMT after a four-hour flight from the International Space Station.

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Thomas Pesquet

Social media messages for Thomas

Here is our roundup of messages for Thomas Pesquet, that we send to him on the International Space Station, starting with two from his friends and family.

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Thomas Pesquet

Proxima – CNES experiments

CNES has developed seven experiments that Thomas Pesquet is performing for his Proxima mission aboard the ISS.

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Thomas Pesquet

Diary entry 11: culture on the Space Station

Some clichés irritate me. Like the one that scientists, engineers or mathematicians are only interested in numbers and experiments. That is simply false. I do not claim to be an expert when it comes to music, cinema or literature, but like everyone else, I enjoy cultural activities. Which is fortunate, because without these types of entertainment, it would be difficult to last six months on the International Space Station.

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