Space: Thomas Pesquet soon in command of the ISS
Thomas Pesquet greets the participants of the press conference given on the eve of his departure for his first mission in space, November 16, 2016. REUTERS / Shamil Zhumatov
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
During his second mission in orbit, "Alpha", Thomas Pesquet will be captain of the International Space Station (ISS) for a while, for which he is due to fly on April 22 from Florida.
A first for a French astronaut.
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At 43, the airline pilot will take control some 400 kilometers above Earth, for about a month, towards the end of
his six-month stay
.
"
I am lucky to be the first French in charge of a space vehicle
," rejoices the astronaut at the microphone of RFI.
This has not happened before, it is thanks to the place of France and Europe in human space flights.
Good for me, but it's recognition for everyone.
"
The European Space Agency (ESA) assigned it this function in agreement with the other partner space agencies of the ISS (United States, Russia, Japan and Canada).
A function performed in turn by the designated members of the ISS crew.
“
It's like a boat, there is only one master on board after God
,” continues Thomas Pesquet.
There are a lot of things that are decided in the control center, the people who work on the ground obviously make a lot of decisions in advance but if there is a voice in the crew that counts, it is that of the captain. .
"
The astronaut knows the future tasks that will fall to him and the responsibilities that will go with them.
“
When things go badly, and you have to react quickly, it's the commander who decides, who assigns the tasks.
For example, if we have to deal with an outbreak of fire, a depresurization, all emergency procedures are carried out at the rate of the station commander.
Obviously everyone is competent, there is no need to tell astronauts what to do, but there is that last layer of decisions which is up to the commander.
This is what will be expected of me
.
"
Experiments and four spacewalks
Another first of the “Alpha” mission: Thomas Pesquet will be the first European to join the ISS aboard a private American spacecraft, Space X's Crew-2 Dragon capsule, which is to take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 22, with three other astronauts: the Americans Megan Mc Arthur and Shane Kimbrough, and the Japanese Akihiko Hoshide.
Once docked to the ISS, he and his team will cohabit for a few days with the four astronauts from Crew-1, who will then return after six months in space.
During this handover period, the space station will accommodate no less than eleven people.
More than a hundred scientific experiments await Thomas Pesquet aboard the ISS, a vast weightless laboratory.
Four “extra-vehicular” outings in space are also scheduled, the most important of which will consist of the installation of new solar panels.
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