Portrait

Sophie Adenot, new astronaut of the European Space Agency

French astronaut Sophie Adenot, in the RFI studios, November 25, 2022. © RFI/Pierre René-Worms

Text by: Simon Rozé Follow

3 mins

Appointed this Wednesday, November 23 by the ESA, the French Sophie Adenot becomes the 11th astronaut of the country.

She was recruited with 4 other Europeans for future space missions.

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"

 I don't think I realize yet. 

“For good reason, it has been a few hours since Sophie Adenot learned that she had been selected among 22,500 applications to

be an astronaut at the European Space Agency (ESA)

.

At 40, it was the second time that she applied for this recruitment campaign, but her selection seems logical as her career destined her for it.

As a child, her family introduced her to science and curiosity.

Astronaut Claudie Haigneré's mission to the Mir station in 1996 constituted

“a click”.

Sophie Adenot was then 14 years old and her sister made fun of her because the only poster displayed in her room was that of a rocket.

Engineering studies followed at ISAE-Supaero in Toulouse, from where Thomas Pesquet had already graduated before her.

She specializes in flight dynamics.

In 2004, she graduated from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, USA.

She joined the Air Force the following year to become a pilot:

“I worked in an office on helicopter cockpits.

I decided it was better to work directly in a cockpit!

she smiles

.

Inspired by key characters

She thus carried out search and rescue missions, particularly in Afghanistan, and obtained the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

In 2018, she became the first female helicopter test pilot.

She now has more than 3,000 flight hours on 22 different types of helicopters.

► Also to listen: What women in space?

This brilliant career did not prevent her from leading a family life, Sophie Adenot is thus the mother of a young boy.

She also speaks 5 languages, practices diving and is a parachute jump instructor.

She has also invested heavily in the popularization and dissemination of science.

"I myself was greatly inspired by key figures, such as Valérie André, the first female doctor and helicopter pilot in the Air Force"

, she explains on RFI.

 My journey would not have been the same if I had not had the inspiration of people who testified with great humility to all their difficulties and their joys.

The fair return for me today is therefore to also pass on and be a source of inspiration for young people 

”, underlines the astronaut.

07:02

French astronaut © RFI

Training phase before assignment to a mission

With this selection, Sophie Adenot begins a new stage in her rich career;

she is the 11th French astronaut, only the second woman, after Claudie Haigneré.

But Sophie Adenot does not make a fight of it: “

 Astronaut is a job that has no gender, and I hope that during the next selection of astronauts, this question will no longer arise 

.

Between now and this next recruitment, the new astronaut will nevertheless have to train and fly.

It will start next spring, with the four other astronauts who make up this 2022 ESA promotion, the Briton Rosemary Coogan, the Spaniard Pablo Álvarez Fernández, the Belgian Raphaël Liégeois and the Swiss Marco Sieber.

This first phase, called "basic training" will familiarize them with the systems of the International Space Station (ISS).

It will then be necessary to wait for

“assignment to a mission.

It could be long, but we know the rules of the game,”

says Sophie Adenot.

Thomas Pesquet had indeed had to wait 7 years between his selection and his first flight aboard the ISS.

The Station will also be the first flight destination for this new generation of astronauts, before being able to envisage the Moon:

“I dream of it, like most astronauts!

But it will first be necessary to learn the trade in low orbit.

»

► To read also: Thomas Pesquet: a return to "normal" life not so simple

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