Something as ordinary as a hot shower becomes a “real treat” if you spend the past six months, like European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Bisquet, orbiting Earth from the International Space Station (ISS).

The cosmonaut joked at a press conference held on Friday at the European Cosmonaut Center in Cologne (West Germany).

Pesquet from there explained his experience after returning this week from the International Space Station and landing on our planet on November 9.

Life on the International Space Station, where Pesquet was developing his second space mission, known as Alpha, can become very boring, as the astronaut explained to the media: “If you have nothing to do all day, it is a kind of prison with great views. You Restricted to doing anything. Activity is what saves us, so we are constantly busy.”

But the daily rhythm of life on the space station keeps astronauts busy with their studies and research.

“Every day is different,” said the astronaut. “Sometimes we do medicine or physiology, and the next day we have physical experiments. The important thing is that we are able to do all of these things and that we have the support of the whole team.” .

After 199 days in space, Bisquet returned to Earth with NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan MacArthur and astronaut Jaxa Akihiko Hoside in the early hours of November 9.

Thus Pesquet became the first European astronaut to travel into space and return in a commercial spacecraft, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavor, and the European who spent the longest time away from our planet.

The spacecraft, which detached independently from the International Space Station and entered the Earth’s atmosphere by opening its parachutes, landed in the water in an area near the coast of Florida (United States) at 03:33 GMT last year.

From there, the astronaut headed to Cologne, Germany, where the European Space Agency (ESA) medical team watches him as he continues to adapt to Earth’s gravity.

“We resumed work as soon as the plane landed. We have to take samples as soon as we touch the ground before we get used to the ground environment again,” Bisquet told the media.

The conference was also attended by the European Space Agency’s director of space exploration, David Parker, who referred to the moon as one of the agency’s next goals: “a European astronaut on the moon by 2030.”

“Putting your foot on the moon would be the most exciting thing, there’s never been a European,” Bisquet said, calling that “the agency’s goal.” “The idea is to get back out there for a while longer. And once we do that, we’ll do the same on Mars.”

Investigations continue

During his second space mission, called Alpha, Pesquet broke several ESA space records, including those of the European who spent the most time in space.

In addition to supporting 200 investigations, including 40 European and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency CNES, the astronaut witnessed the arrival and departure of seven different spacecraft.

It also saw the eventual retirement after twenty years of the Pirs unit and the arrival of the Russian Nauka Lab’s unit with a very special passenger, the European robotic arm.

From Earth, Pesquet will continue to work with European researchers on experiments such as studying the effect of space stations on astronauts’ hearing capacity or the TIME experiment that studies changes in astronauts’ perception of time in space until the time comes. for a new assignment. (I)