VIDEOS – The French astronaut gave Wednesday, in his first press conference from space, revealing problems of toilet upon arrival in the ISS. That aside, it feels very well in zero gravity.
Less than a week after his arrival aboard the international space Station (ISS), Thomas Pesquet is like a fish in the water. “We very quickly adapted (with the Russian Oleg Novitsky and American Peggy Whitson, with whom he arrived Saturday, editor’s NOTE)”, explained on Wednesday the new French astronaut, the 10th of the Story, during his first press conference organized by the european space Agency (ESA). “We have not been sick at all, everyone feels very well. I am a bit swollen, but it is related to the fluids that go back a little in weightlessness, it will be resorbed within a few weeks or months to come. I sleep very well. It is very pleasant, floating in her sleeping bag hooked to the wall. Fortunately, because we are here for six months!”
The French astronaut 38-year-old, the youngest of the class of 2009 of the european space Agency, seems to be actually very comfortable with the image. It floats, smiling, happy. “It is still a lot better than I imagined,” says the former pilot of Air France about his new home for the next six months. When we can see the Station through the porthole of the capsule, it is a real slap in the face. This huge base that floats in the space, this is science-fiction. This is yet seven years that I have been preparing this mission. I know the lower corner, the lower bolt, but this strikes, it is the feeling of freedom.”
he had exchanged a few words with his family and the monitoring center Russian to his arrival in the night from Saturday to Sunday, the French astronaut had not yet had time to talk about the experience of take-off and two travel days required to reach the ISS. “The last day is filled with rituals. We spend our last meal on Earth, then it is disinfected from head to toe before you go donning our scuba gear in the assembly building of the rocket. Then we talk to our families through a window before going to greet the officials outside and get on the bus to get to the rocket. We see the family for the last time before flying, it is something. And then there’s the rise in the elevator seemed interminable. It is here that one realizes that it is the top a Soyuz!”
After installation in the capsule with the help of a technician, he is spending time with his two team-mates in music. “We had made a playlist that I shared on the Internet if this is of interest to people. We shook hands, waiting for the final count. Then this is the take-off. The acceleration that increases gradually until we hit the seat, and then the boosters that separate, the impression of falling before you speed up again gradually for a second time, then a third time. And then it is orbit, as a kick in the butt and one is in space, it begins to float. And immediately, it is necessary to begin to work. This is only 6 to 7 hours after the takeoff that you can sleep, collapsed of fatigue.”
“It makes a little mess on the images, but the ISS is very tidy, in fact,”
On board of the Soyuz capsule, about the size of a small car, the astronauts engage in a kind of “Tetris 3D” to find their place. Next, the Station, the passenger volume is the same as that of a Boeing 747, acts as a castle. “This is a mess like that on the pictures, but everything is extremely tidy, in fact,” explains Thomas Pesquet. “Everything has its place. Just ask the floor and they give you exactly the code of the place where you will find what you are looking for. There are millions of things on the walls, on the ceiling or on the ground, behind the doors. The important thing is to put everything back in its place when we are done, otherwise, everything can be lost very quickly.” As for the microphone, that the French had lost 30 seconds before making the communication via the control center Houston at Nasa.
Since Monday, ESA astronaut began to work. Sunrise 6 am, first brief at 7: 30, and then the marathon of the scientific experiments and the work of maintenance of the Station until 19: 30. With a first unexpected: the toilet fell down. “It has taken a good time of the day. I hope that we have passed our quota of bad luck from the beginning, has fun there. In principle it should hold up to the end.” This weekend, Thomas will finally be able to enjoy it more at length the view of the Earth from the Cupola. Then it will be a little bit of time to make a visit to the ISS by video conference to its close. “I did that a few minutes per day on the phone for the moment.”
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