The French Sophie Adenot, retained in the new promotion of European astronauts last November, confided this Friday that she is “very excited” to start her training at the beginning of April, evoking her “happiness and her “incredible enthusiasm”, in the Cité de l ‘Espace.From toulouse.
“I’m looking forward to all these space adventure experiences, whether it’s working with teams of experts, astronauts, training, simulators, trips to Houston, Canada, in Japan to discover the different modules we’ll have to operate in… .”, she said.
“I am in a state of mind of incredible enthusiasm, I have energy to spare,” he added, at the end of a two-day visit, carried out with the Frenchman Arnaud Prost, selected as a reserve astronaut, in Toulouse, in particular at the National Center of Space Studies (CNES), at ISAE-Supaéro (the aeronautical engineering school they both attended), as well as at Airbus.
Sophie Adenot, 40, will begin her training on April 1 at the European Astronaut Center (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, with a “12 to 14 month” course, “basic training”.
“What am I fearing? Not much yet”
It is a “multidisciplinary and quite general training on all the topics that we will have to deal with as an astronaut: learn medicine, emergency medicine because you have to know how to give first aid if necessary, understand the space systems on which we will have to operate, a bit of training in the pool, in emergency procedures, etc.”, he explained.
At the end of this initial training, one of the promotion’s five astronauts will be selected and begin “mission-specific training that typically lasts two years before being able to take off.”
The others will be divided among “various tasks: maintaining skills, helping design future space exploration missions, helping with communication between station crews and ground teams,” according to Sophie Adenot.
“What am I afraid of? Not much at the moment,” she confesses, explaining that she is delighted to find herself on the school benches when currently, her schedule as a helicopter test pilot is “in the morning the Puma (French military transport), in the afternoon the Chinook (American heavy maneuver helicopter), the next day the Caracal (military transport, Airbus) and the next day the NH90 (European maneuver and assault helicopter)”.
ESA’s goal: to put Europeans on the Moon
Didier Schmitt, ESA’s head of human flight strategy and coordination, said training for European astronauts will evolve “in the coming years significantly,” with “the goal of the Moon.”
“We are preparing a new generation of astronauts that will go completely beyond just going to an orbital space station 400 km and back, then we will go 400,000 km and land on the Moon.”
For that, profiles capable of remaining “humble” are needed, he explained: “it’s not just the astronaut but the 1,000 people behind it and who prepare the missions. It’s also being able to make the right decision at the right time.”
It was last November that the European Space Agency (ESA) named its five new astronauts. In addition to Sophie Adenot, the new class includes Rosemary Coogan, a 31-year-old Briton, and three men: Marco Sieber from Switzerland, Pablo Alvarez Fernandez from Spain and Raphaël Liégeois from Belgium.
They all come to join the seven serving European astronauts, from the class of 2009 that included two Germans, two Italians, a Briton, a Dane and Frenchman Thomas Pesquet.
Source: BFM TV
