French astronaut Thomas Pesquet is returning to Earth on Friday. Pesquet will return after completing a long 196-day trip on International Space Station (ISS).
Thomas Pesquet, 39, is a French aerospace engineer and pilot, who was born in Rouen, France. He holds a black belt in judo. He was selected by European Space Agency (ESA) as an astronaut candidate in 2009, and completed his initial astronaut training in 2010. Basketball, jogging, swimming, and squash are the favorite sports of Pesquet. He also enjoys kite surfing, mountain biking, skiing, sailing, mountaineering, scuba diving and parachuting. Pesquet has become a media celebrity in France, and has more than 550,000 followers on Twitter.
Pesquet had arrived on ISS November 20, 2016, along with Russia’s Oleg Novitskiy and American Peggy Whitson.
Russian cosmonaut Novitskiy, 45, will also return to Earth on Friday. The touchdown is scheduled for 1430 GMT.
“The two astronauts have accomplished all the tasks that were given to them in a satisfactory manner,” said Yuri Malenchenko, the number two at the cosmonaut training center outside Moscow.
“Thomas Pesquet… is a real professional with a great desire to work in space. And this flight has confirmed these qualities,” Malenchenko said.
“Thomas has worked in a remarkable fashion,” Jean-Yves Le Gall, the head of CNES, France’s space agency, told AFP.
“There are things that one understands intellectually, but which one doesn’t really get,” the 39-year-old said.
When it comes to global warming, “we talk of two degrees (Celsius) or four degrees — these are numbers which sometimes exceed human understanding.
“But to see the planet as a whole… to see it for yourself… this allows you to truly appreciate the fragility.”
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