Space Agency: Sophie Adenot, new French astronaut

The ESA, a European agency, is dedicated to the peaceful exploration and use of space for the benefit of all. Created in 1975, the agency now brings together 22 Member States and ensures "the promotion of European scientific and industrial interests in space".

A French astronaut with an international career

From among 22,500 applications from all over Europe, and after a long selection process, Sophie Adenot was appointed French ESA astronaut on November 23. In appointing her, along with 16 other members forming the new cohort of European astronauts, the Director General of the ESA underlined that this new generation "brings together ambition, talent and diversity in all its forms", necessary to pursue "Exploration activities in low Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station", but also to "Go to the moon and beyond".

Sophie Adenot is an aerospace engineer, lieutenant-colonel of the Air and Space Force, helicopter pilot and test pilot. Between 2001 and 2003, she studied engineering at ISAE-SUPAERO (Toulouse) where she specialized in aerospace flight mechanics. She continued her training at MIT (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology) where she obtained a master’s degree in human factors in aeronautical and space science and a doctorate on "the adaptation of the vestibular system to artificial gravity". Later, Sophie Adenot joined the Air Force and followed a military course as an officer cadet as well as training to become a helicopter pilot and then a test pilot. She has flown more than 3,000 hours and has also obtained a skydiving and light aircraft pilot license. In addition to French, she speaks English fluently, and also speaks German and Russian and has a basic knowledge of Spanish.

An eclectic cohort

Sophie Adenot is thus the second French female astronaut. She succeeds Claudie Haigneré, the first French astronaut to fly aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where she is carrying out an experimental program in the fields of Earth observation, life sciences and the science of matter. Claudie Haigneré also served as Minister for Research and then Minister for European Affairs in the early 2000s. According to the French Government, the appointment of a new female astronaut "embodies an example for the future of women in scientific and technical circles, where they are still under-represented (less than one in ten astronauts is a woman)".

The 2022 cohort of ESA astronauts includes a total of five career astronauts, eleven reserve astronauts and one astronaut with a physical disability. The new astronauts, notes the ESA, will be based at the European Astronaut Center located in Cologne, Germany. They will receive "a very demanding training, in accordance with the standards set by the international partners of the International Space Station".

For the first time, the ESA has set up an astronaut reserve made up of candidates who have passed all the tests in the selection process but who cannot be recruited immediately. These "reservists" will receive basic training and will receive more advanced training if a flight opportunity is identified. For France, the "reservist" is Arnaud Prost, an engineer and pilot of the DGA (General Directorate of Armaments).

France increases its contribution to the ESA

It is in this context that the Minister for the Economy and the Minister for Research announced a significantly increased contribution from France, in order to strengthen Europe’s autonomy in the space sector and to ensure better monitoring of climate change.

ESA Member States decided on an overall European investment of €17 billion. France, for its part, has committed to contribute around €3.25 billion to the European Space Agency, up by more than 20% compared to 2019. France’s aim is to target two priority objectives:

• to strengthen European autonomy in the space sector, particularly in terms of access to space, telecommunications and the competitiveness of the European space sector;
• to improve knowledge of climate change, with particular investment in research programs that improve "our knowledge of climate change and to anticipate its effects".