French astronaut Thomas Pesquet will be able to leave for a second space mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in late 2021, the European Space Agency (ESA), which also plans to fly a new European, said Thursday. the German Matthias Maurer. ESA's funding for the next three years, which has just been voted on by ESA, "will allow Thomas Pesquet to go into space soon," said Frédérique Vidal, French Minister for Research. at the end of the meeting of the 22 ESA member countries in Seville, which she co-chaired.
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This long-duration flight, planned for the end of 2021, would be the second for the French astronaut who had made a first mission aboard the ISS between November 2016 and June 2017. ESA will also propose to the other member countries of the ISS to send a new European, the German astronaut Matthias Maurer.
The project is to briefly join Thomas Pesquet aboard the ISS, which will be "a very beautiful symbol of European friendship," said Frédérique Vidal. ESA on Thursday voted a record 14.4 billion euros to finance its new programs, including the exploration component (nearly 2 billion euros) includes funding for the end of the ISS. "We now have the certainty of having the ISS funding over the next three years, which guarantees the theft of Pesquet and the new German astronaut," AFP Didier Schmitt, coordinator for exploration at ESA.