Monday, November 14, 2016

Thomas Pesquet : the tenth French to go into space – France Inter

Thomas Pesquet during its prérepair
Thomas Pesquet during its preparation © Reuters / Maxim Zmeyev

It’s been eight years that it is preparing to. Thursday, Thomas Pesquet, 38 years old, will be the tenth French to leave the space. It needs to fly at 21h20 hour from Paris, aboard a Soyuz launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. Management the international space Station (ISS). The launcher that will carry the spationaut French and his team-mates in the space is already ready to take off.

His mission, called Proxima in tribute to the star closest to our Sun (Proxima centauri), is to last six months. It is close to the record of time spent in space by a French. It is currently held by Jean-Pierre Haigneré, who, in two missions, spent 209 days in space. His wife, Claudie Haigneré, is the only French to have stayed in the area.

In total, nine French people have already participated in manned space flights.

  • Jean-Loup Chrétien. Born in 1938, he is the first French and european to be selected as an astronaut in 1980. It has carried out three missions. In June 1982, he joined the soviet space station Saliout in Soyuz and gives his first interview from space, about 300 km from the Earth.

In 1988, Jean-Loup Chrétien joined the station and the soviet Mir. Finally in 1997, he embarked in the american space shuttle Atlantis with a docking to the Mir station, where he spent four days. It has a total of 43 days in space.

  • Patrick Baudry. Born in 1946, second French to travel in space, Patrick Baudry is a fighter pilot in the air force when he was selected by the Centre national d’etudes spatiales (CNES) in 1980. He has made a mission of 7 days, in 1985, aboard the shuttle Discovery.

  • Michel Tognini. Born in 1949, he completed two space missions. In 1992, he flew aboard a Soyuz to reach the station Mir (mission Antares). His second flight took place in 1999 on the space shuttle Columbia. He has spent a total of 18 days in space.

  • Jean-Pierre Haigneré. Born in 1948, and selected in 1985, he completed two space missions. In 1993, he flew with two Russian cosmonauts to the Mir station (mission Altair). He returns on board the Mir in 1999. It has a total of 209 days in space, the record French.

  • Jean-François Clervoy. Born in 1958, he has performed 3 missions, in 1994, 1997, 1999 (Atlantis STS-66 and STS-84, and Discovery STS-103). He spent 28 days in space.

  • Jean-Jacques Favier. Born in 1949, he carried out a mission of 16 days in 1996 (space shuttle Columbia).

  • Claudie Haigneré. First and only French to have travelled in space. Born in 1957 in le Creusot (Saône-et-Loire), physician and rheumatologist, Claudie Haigneré has practised eight years at the Cochin hospital in Paris. In 1985, she was selected by the CNES to become an astronaut. On the 17th of August in 1996, she took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome and spent 16 days aboard the Mir station. His second mission, in 2001, takes her to the international space Station. In total she spent 25 days in space. Minister delegate in charge of Research and New technologies (2002 – 2004) and minister delegate for european Affairs (2004-2005), Claudie Haigneré is now working within the European Space Agency.

    ► RÉECOUTEZ | Claudie Haigneré : “the smell of the Earth, when we open the capsule…” in The morning of the departure of the march 19, 2016

  • Leopold Eyharts. The last Frenchman to be gone in the space, Léopold Eyharts was born in 1957. Selected in 1990, he completed two missions. The first in the Mir station in 1998. The second ten years later, in February 2008, aboard the ISS. It has a total of 68 days in space.

  • Philippe Perrin. Born in 1963, and selected in 1996, he embarked in 2002 on the space shuttle Endeavour to win the ISS. He spent 13 days in space.

    ► RÉECOUTEZ | Thomas Pesquet in the 7/9 of the April 29, 2016

The 10 astronauts français
The 10 astronauts French © Visactu / Radio France
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