Astronaut does something amazing on the International Space Station – Morning Ticker

A French astronaut many miles above the surface of the Earth did something that pretty much none of us will ever do.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet pulled off quite the feat aboard the International Space Station recently. Even though hes currently orbiting the Earth 249 miles from the surface, and his home country of France, he was able to cast his vote in the countrys contentious election.

Pesquet had to handle more than a few obstacles in order to vote. For one thing, he had to have a colleague act as power of attorney to cast a vote on his behalf, and secondly he had to deal with the problem that when not on the ISS, he resides in journey. Nevertheless, you wouldnt expect an astronaut like Pesquet to be bothered by hurdles like that, and he dutifully performed his civic duty as a French citizen while looking down on the country from high above.

Pesquet is the European Space Agencys youngest astronaut, and he described himself in interviews as passionately interested in politics. He once remarked in an interview with Franceinfo that people should open up and understand that the world is done with others, not against others, that we need more bridges than walls. That suggests he is unlikely to be voting for far-right anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen, who is expected to fall to moderate candidate Emmanuel Macron in Sundays election.

Pesquet first arrived at the ISS back in November, and he will spend six months there with astronauts Oleg Novitsky and NASAs Peggy Whitson.

Here is NASAs biography of Pesquet as posted on their website.

Born in Rouen, France, on 27 February 1978, Thomas Pesquet is a black belt in judo and enjoys basketball, jogging, swimming, squash and outdoor sports such as mountain biking, kite surfing, sailing, skiing and mountaineering. He also has extensive experience in scuba diving and skydiving. His other interests include travelling, playing the saxophone and reading.

Education

Thomas graduated from the competitive French classes prparatoires aux grandes coles at the Lyce Pierre Corneille in Rouen, France, in 1998.

In 2001, he received a masters degree from the cole Nationale Suprieure de lAronautique et de lEspace in Toulouse, France, majoring in spacecraft design and control. He spent his final year before graduation at the cole Polytechnique de Montral, Canada, as an exchange student on the Aeronautics and Space Master course.

Thomas graduated from the Air France flight school in 2006. This led to an Air Transport Pilot License-Instrument Rating (ATPL-IR).

Organisations

Thomas is a member of the French Aeronautics and Astronautics Association (3AF) and of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Experience

From April to September 2001, Thomas was a trainee engineer with Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France, where he developed a satellite system design tool using concurrent engineering techniques.

From October 2001, he worked as a spacecraft dynamics engineer on remote sensing missions for GMV S.A. in Madrid, Spain.

Between 2002 and 2004, Thomas worked at the French space agency, CNES, as a research engineer on space mission autonomy. He also carried out studies on future European ground segment design and European space technology harmonisation. From late 2002, he was a CNES representative at the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, working on cross-support between international space agencies.

An avid private pilot in his spare time, Thomas was selected in 2004 for Air Frances flight training programme. He went on to become a commercial pilot for the airline, where he started flying the Airbus A320 in 2006. Having logged more than 2300 flight hours on commercial airliners, he became a type rating instructor on the A320 and a Crew Resource Management instructor.

Thomas was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. He joined ESA in September 2009 and completed basic training in November 2010. After graduation, he worked as a Eurocom, communicating with astronauts during spaceflights from the mission control centre. He was also in charge of future projects at the European Astronaut Centre, including initiating cooperation with new partners such as China.

To be ready for a space mission, he received further technical and operational training in Europe, Russia and the USA: on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, on the US and Russian spacesuits, and on Space Station systems. He took part in exploration training courses: living and working underground on ESAs CAVES training course in 2011, and underwater on NASAs Seatest-2 mission.

On 17 March 2014, Thomas was assigned to a long-duration mission on the International Space Station.

Spaceflight experience

Thomas was launched to the International Space Station on 17 November 2016 for his six-month Proxima mission as a flight engineer for Expeditions 50 and 51. His is scheduled to return to Earth in May 2017.

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Astronaut does something amazing on the International Space Station - Morning Ticker