"I'm so looking forward to all of these space adventure experiences, whether it's working with expert teams, astronauts, training, simulators, trips to Houston, Canada, in Japan to discover the different modules on which we will have to operate...", she said.
"I am in a state of mind of incredible enthusiasm, I have energy to spare", she added, at the end of a two-day visit, carried out with the French Arnaud Prost, selected as a reserve astronaut, in Toulouse, notably at the National Center for Space Studies (CNES), at ISAE-Supaéro (the aeronautical engineering school they both attended), as well as at Airbus.
Sophie Adenot, 40, will begin her training as a European astronaut on April 1 at the European Astronaut Center (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, with a course "from 12 to 14 months", "basic training" .
It is a "multidisciplinary and fairly generalist training on all the themes that we will have to address as an astronaut: learning medicine, emergency medicine because you have to be able to provide first aid if necessary, understand the space systems on which we will have to operate, a little training in the swimming pool, in emergency procedures, etc.”, she detailed.
At the end of this initial training, one of the five astronauts of the promotion will be selected and will then begin for him a "training specific to the mission which generally lasts two years before being able to take off".
The others will be divided between "several tasks: maintaining skills, helping to design future space exploration missions, helping communication between station crews and ground teams", according to Sophie Adenot.
It was last November that the European Space Agency (ESA) appointed its five new astronauts.
In addition to Sophie Adenot, helicopter test pilot, the new promotion includes Rosemary Coogan, a 31-year-old Briton, and three men: the Swiss Marco Sieber, the Spaniard Pablo Alvarez Fernandez and the Belgian Raphaël Liégeois.
All come to join the seven European astronauts in service, from the 2009 promotion which included two Germans, two Italians, a Briton, a Dane and the Frenchman Thomas Pesquet.
© 2023 AFP