Recruitment of future astronauts: will the French Clément Hubert be next?

Laure Dautriche, edited by Manon Fossat 10:45 am, December 09, 2021

Will Clément Huber be the next French astronaut?

This young 29-year-old from Grenoble is one of the 1,500 candidates running to become an astronaut.

The European space agency launched a few months ago the recruitment of new astronauts and it is the first French retained since Thomas Pesquet in 2009. They were 28,000 to present themselves (including 7,000 French) and Clément Huber is one of the 800 candidates still smooth.

He must now go through several stages over a period of one year, to hope to become the future European astronaut.

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"Pushing the limits of human exploration"

Clément Huber has been training for a year.

And his strong point is above all his versatility: a former student of Saint-Cyr, now a robotics engineer and reservist in the mountain hunter troops, he also climbs, scuba dives and learns Russian, a compulsory language. for all European astronauts. 

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Wednesday in Germany, Clément Huber went through a new scenario test. "The goal was to test our cognitive faculties: memory, adaptability and multitasking. What I love about being an astronaut is pushing the limits of knowledge and skills. "human exploration. Returning to the Moon to really settle there and go to Mars are really challenges that interest me particularly", he explains at the microphone of Europe 1.

If he succeeds, the young man can hope to work in the same office as Thomas Pesquet.

"It would be a chance. Unfortunately, I haven't yet touched it with my finger, but I would like to".

There is still a long way to go until next fall, the date of the results.

Soon, Clément Huber and the other successful candidates will pass an oral examination in front of a jury composed in part of astronauts.