Home away from the home planet

As a month of celebration of the International Space Station’s 20 years of continued human habitation draws to a close, we look back on the first mission of the next ESA astronaut to travel to the Space Station, Thomas Pesquet.

The French ESA astronaut lived and worked on the Space Station for 196 days during his first mission, Proxima, between November 2016 and June 2017. Thomas is one of 18 European astronauts to have spent time on board and will return for its Spring 2021 Alpha mission.

Thomas is seen here working in the European Columbus laboratory which was launched on the Station in February 2008.

The Columbus laboratory is Europe’s largest single contribution to the International Space Station. Permanently attached to the Harmony module, this pressurized laboratory allows ground researchers, aided by the Station’s crew, to conduct a wide variety of research in a weightless environment.

Space science, Earth observation and technology experiments can also be conducted outside the module, thanks to four external mounting platforms exposed to the vacuum of space. A room outside Columbus is also on the way for commercial experiments, with Bartolomeoservices coming into operation soon.

During his upcoming Alpha mission, Thomas will continue this research and experimentation on the International Space Station with the support of his crewmates and ground teams from ESA, the US space agency NASA, the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the Canadian space agency and the Japanese space agency JAXA.

This enduring international partnership is a key feature of the Space Station as nations work across cultures and borders, carrying out science, research, and engineering that have led to breakthroughs in disease research, materials science, Earth observation, our understanding of the origins of the Earth and more.