French astronaut completes the second mission of his career into orbit. With three other astronauts, he will leave the International Space Station Sunday after spending more than six months in space.
Le Monde with AFP
It’s time to give up the stars for Thomas Pesquet. French astronaut and three other astronauts leave the International Space Station (ISS) Sunday announced NASA, Friday, November 5. They amerriront off Florida “no sooner” than Monday at 12 h 14 GMT (13 h 14 to Paris), after spending more than six months in space.
“Then we get ready to leave, there is a bit of a bittersweet feeling,” said Thomas Pesquet at a press conference from the space station. “It could be that we never come back to see the ISS, and it really is a magical place.”
Crew Crew-2, composed of Thomas Pesquet Japanese Akihiko Hoshide and Americans Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, and will return to Earth before arrival at the ISS for four astronauts Crew-3 whose takeoff was delayed several times particularly because of the weather.
French astronaut 43 years ends the second mission of his career orbiting Alpha. He had arrived at the ISS with teammates on 24 April. At its previous mission, Proxima, in 2016-2017, he had landed in the Kazakh steppes. The landing will be a first for him. This should “be a little softer on the water,” said Thomas Pesquet. “Then what can happen is that it moves a little.”
“We already have a little seasick on the way to earth, so there returning sea it may be even worse, but we’ll see,” he added. After its dizzying descent, the Dragon capsule will be recovered in one of the possible places of arrival, off Florida by boat SpaceX.
Toilet Fault
Crew-2 is the second regular task performed by the company to Elon Musk on behalf of NASA. The takeoff of the third was he finally scheduled for Wednesday at 21 h 03 Florida time (3 h 03 in Paris, Thursday) aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. Astronauts Crew-3, Americans Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn and German Matthias Maurer, are quarantined at the Kennedy Space Center in days.
The space agency is considering the capsule Crew-2 does, before starting his descent to Earth around the space station in order to photograph the outside. An unexpected challenge then waits four astronauts on their journey: they can not use the toilet of the Dragon capsule, a leakage problem had been discovered. “It is of course not optimal, but we are prepared to handle this,” commented Megan McArthur modestly Friday.
After returning to Earth and a few tests to check his health in Florida, Thomas Pesquet be quickly transported to Cologne, Germany, where the European Astronaut Center.
a mission “very, very intense”
There will follow “for three weeks an intense fitness program” and will be subject to the same tests before and during his stay in weightlessness, to contribute to the collection of scientific data on the effect of a long stay in orbit on the human body.
“And then hopefully, the first holiday week for many months,” he said Friday. “I even feel like it’s been years.” Tracing the six months just passed, he described the mission as “very, very intense.”
Thomas Pesquet made four outputs extra-vehicular ( “EVA”) outside the station, including installing new solar panels. This leads him to six games in total, after the two performed at its first Proxima mission. He also became, October 4, the first French person to take command of the International Space Station.
Asked about the moments he will remember, he cited “more than 200 experiments” conducted on board, but the encounter with actress Yulia Peressild, and the director Klim Chipenko, Russia came during twelve days rotate the first film ever in space.
“We did not know how to position themselves at the start,” he said. “But we were able to talk to them and everything ended up well unfold. We look forward to see the result.”