Follow Thomas Pesquet’s departure for ISS Live

French ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet will land at the Kennedy Space Center for the International Space Station on Thursday, April 22, 2021 at 12:11 (Paris time). He Shane Kimbrose and Kay. Megan McArthur will travel with NASA astronauts and Akihiko Hoshide, a member of Jaxa (Japanese Space Agency).

First flight on an already used rocket and capsule

After his first stay in space of 196 days between 2016 and 2017, Thomas Pesquet is therefore preparing to return to the ISS, of which he will be in command for a period of one month out of the six months that the Alpha mission will run. For his first mission, Proxima, he borrowed a Russian Soyuz MS-03 vessel. This time, it is a rocket and an American capsule that will take it towards the space station. The United States and NASA have in fact achieved space autonomy for SpaceX, the firm of the ubiquitous Elon Musk, which successfully ensured the first crew rotation and SpaceX crew-1 mission in November 2020.

The astronauts flew aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, the first leg of which came back from Florida to land on a boat at sea. This is what will be used for this new mission, Crew-2. In addition, the astronauts will place in a Dragon C206 Endeavor capsule, which served for the first manned flight, sending 2 astronauts to the ISS in August 2020. It is also the first time that the capsule will be reused and Thomas Pesquet will also be the first European rider in a SpaceX spacecraft.

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Presentation of Alpha Mission:

Take away to follow live

Several channels will broadcast Falcon 9’s take-off live.

  • For this occasion, CNES (National Center for Space Studies) is organizing a special event in partnership with ESA in the presence of astronaut Jean-François Claroy and other experts from 10:55 am.

  • NASA will begin live at 10:30 am from the Kennedy Space Center.

  • There is a direct entry from Florida on France 2 at 11:50 am on television, with Riley on the France Info Channel from 11:00 am.

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