“I am re-adjusting to the earth environment.” A week after his return to Earth, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet answered questions from France 2 from the astronaut center on Friday, November 19 in Cologne (Germany). “Every day, we try to improve the balance, the vestibular system, to regain strength and bone density …” he explained, adding to recover faster than after his first mission.
He notably returned to his four extra-vehicular outings in a pressurized diving suit, for a total of 40 hours. “It’s physically difficult, it’s like a marathon, but an upper body marathon, he explained. It’s taxing on the human body, but we train on board the station and before the mission. ”
During his stay, Thomas Pesquet took many pictures to show the beauties of space and our planet. The astronaut says he took in total “245,000 photos” from the ISS and posting “nearly 3,000” on social networks. Back on Earth, he explains that “a lot of muscles [lui] recall their existence quite regularly “because he hadn’t used it for months. But he takes advantage again “small pleasures of everyday life”, like “the smell of nature” and “wind”.
“It was a surprise”, also commented Thomas Pesquet after the Russian firing against an old satellite, which propelled thousands of debris which posed a threat on the ISS. “Even our Russian colleagues and the Russian space agency were taken by surprise. We know that the danger has passed, we will look at this in more detail.” The astronaut clarified that Europe, for its part, was trying to “lead by example” by not creating “no space debris”.
And now ? Thomas Pesquet wants to reach the Moon. “Well before 2030, we’ll be there. I’m on schedule to participate in these missions. What’s important is that we set ourselves ambitious goals.” But the French still has a little time ahead of him, before defending a possible candidacy. “Seeing the International Space Station fly by in the sky, it makes me really weird, he concludes. I left her a few days ago. ”