Thomas Pesquet and the three astronauts who are part of the same Crew 2 crew, named after the Space X capsule they boarded, have been on the International Space Station since April 23.
Their return was expected six months later, between early and mid-November, NASA has always announced.
So we are there, but there are still uncertainties as to the exact date of this return to Earth.
NASA and Space X have indeed encountered several setbacks on the takeoff of Crew 3, the crew of four astronauts who must take over on board the ISS.
How far can we delay this return to Earth?
On the social networks of which he is so fond, Thomas Pesquet does not let anything show.
The French astronaut continues to regularly post there pictures of French cities taken from space and to tell the behind the scenes of his six-month mission aboard the International Space Station.
Latest episode to date: harvesting and tasting the peppers they grew on board.
🌶 We ate the peppers after watching them grow for months last Friday: most complex vegetable ever grown in space mind you, and also very 🔥🔥🔥 #MissionAlpha pic.twitter.com/dh0t74JWp9
- Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) November 3, 2021
Is he still beginning to find the time long?
Thomas Pesquet left Earth on April 23 already, aboard Crew 2, the capsule of the American company Space X, in the company of the three other astronauts who accompanied him (a Japanese and two Americans).
They have therefore already spent more than six months in Space.
Should they normally have been with us already?
Not necessarily, answers Olivier Sanguy, scientific mediator of the Cité de l'Espace in Toulouse.
"NASA has always given a fork for this return, between early and mid-November," he recalls.
We are still in this niche.
"
Planning for Crew2's return to Earth is still proving to be more complicated than expected.
The precise date is still unknown to this day.
It is normally conditioned upon the arrival on board the ISS of the four Crew 3 astronauts, including the German Matthias Maurer, who must take over.
This is NASA and Space X's plan A. The ideal scenario.
“The idea is to have the departing crew and the arriving crew cohabit in the ISS for a few days - one week at most,” resumes Oliver Sanguy.
This facilitates the handover, especially on scientific experiments in progress.
Even if the procedures are strict and everything is noted, it is always better to be able to exchange visually and symbolically hand over the baton.
"
A take-off of Crew 3 which has a series of setbacks
The concern is that the take-off of Crew 3 has a series of setbacks. It was initially scheduled for last Saturday, before being postponed to Sunday. Then, the day approaching, postponed again to this Wednesday, November 3 due to bad weather conditions. “Not so much in Florida [where the American launch base is located], specifies Olivier Sanguy. The bad conditions were much more on the ascent corridor, the overflight zone which covers the whole Atlantic to Ireland and above which NASA and Space X estimate that the capsule can be ejected [ where the crew were seated] if there is a problem with the launcher. "
Here we are on November 4th and the Crew3 is still on the cowslip.
The fault, this time, with a "minor" medical problem encountered by one of the four astronauts of the crew, communicated the NASA, without saying more about the nature of this problem or the identity of the astronaut affected, for the sake of respecting medical confidentiality.
A plan B: do not wait for the next generation
Take-off is now scheduled for Saturday at 11 p.m. Florida time, or around 4.30 a.m., from Saturday to Sunday at our place. "But NASA does present this date as the closest opportunity [" earliest opportunity "]", warns Olivier Sanguy. In other words, it remains subject to possible new postponements. "It is possible," continues the scientific mediator of the Cité de l'Espace in Toulouse. Weather reports, in particular from Patrick Air Force Base, an American military base located in Florida, announce a fairly high probability of having unfavorable weather conditions again. "
Windows of firing would still be possible at the beginning of next week, one indicates to the European Space Agency (ESA). But if these opportunities are still missed, NASA and Space X will have to switch to plan B: bring the crew of Crew 2 back to Earth without waiting for the relief. It is not so much that food is in danger of running out or that the astronauts cannot last more than six months in the ISS, even if one can imagine that these indecisions on their return date must weigh on their morale. “In evoking his first mission aboard the ISS [he had already stayed there six months, from November 2016 to June 2017], Thomas Pesquet spoke of this impatience to return to Earth when we know that the return date is approaching. », Recalls Olivier Sanguy.
In an exchange with Emmanuel Macron this Thursday, relayed on Twitter, Thomas Pesquet said in any case to take these uncertainties on his return on the safe side.
“When you embark on a mission like this, you know that it can happen,” he explains, before presenting these days of rab as a “blessing”.
Admittedly, the French astronaut says he still has work, "but the list of tasks is already well advanced, so that it allows to have days for yourself too," he says.
It's like an airlock before coming back to Earth and reuniting with my loved ones and my family.
"
Do not make the capsule wait too long
The need not to delay this return too much does not respond so much to a human imperative as to technical considerations. This Crew 2 capsule, which sent Thomas Pesquet and his three accomplices to the ISS on April 23, has remained moored there ever since. "However, it was designed specifically for this mission scheduled to last six months," says Olivier Sanguy. This does not mean that it becomes unusable after this time. But in space, we don't really like playing on the safety margins. "
If this plan B is activated, the international space station, permanently occupied since the year 2000, would not for all that become uninhabited by the time Crew 3 arrives. This would be to forget the Russians Anton Chkaplerov and Piotr Doubrov, as well as the American Mark T. Vande Hei, all three arrived aboard Russian Soyuz vessels, which will be there to welcome the relief.
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