“I am really delighted to have learned that Sophie Adenot was assigned to this mission,” rejoices former French astronaut Claudie Haigneré

“I am really delighted to have learned that Sophie Adenot was assigned to this mission which will happen very quickly”, rejoices, Wednesday May 22 on franceinfo Claudie Haigneré, former astronaut, first French woman to have gone into space in 1996 and advisor to the director general of the ESA (European Space Agency). “The moment of assignment to a mission is important. It’s a magical moment,” she adds.

French astronaut Sophie Adenot, a helicopter pilot, will fly to the International Space Station in spring 2026. She thus becomes the second French astronaut in history to go into orbit, thirty years after Claudie Haigneré.

“We know to what extent Sophie has prepared all her life for this dream that she has had for a very long time and I am very happy for her,” continues Claudie Haigneré. Concerning Sophie Adenot’s journey, the former astronaut explains that it was “fast”. Between November 2022 and 2026, four years will have passed: “I was selected in 1985 and I flew in 1996, that is to say 11 years”remembers Claudie Haigneré who found that “great for Sophie that it’s happening so quickly.”

In detail, Sophie Adenot “has just had a year of intense basic training at the European training center in Cologne (Germany) and there she will enter what we call preparation, to then arrive at the preparation of the specific mission”, explains Claudie Haigneré. A still unknown mission highlights the former astronaut: “Scientific experiments? Possibility of extra-vehicular exit? Technological experiments?” What is certain is that “The next two years are going to be busy”smiles Claudie Haigneré. “We can imagine everything that needs to be assimilated to be operationally effective.”