For Sophie Adeno, the new French astronaut, no missions until “at least 2026.”

We will have to wait for the Frenchwoman to replace Claudie Haignere. Frenchwoman Sophie Adeno, a participant in a new European Space Agency promotion, will not fly into space before “at least until 2026.” Invited to BFMTV, she talked about the months ahead of her to prepare for her future stay in space. About the program, in particular, intensive training at the European Space Center in Cologne (Germany) since April, – explains the future cosmonaut.

This 40-year-old female helicopter test pilot, assigned along with four other astronauts, will now “go back to school.” First of all, she will have a year of “basic training” where she must study space mechanics, “all the elements to understand the space station and find a way around it.”

If Sophie Adeno is chosen to participate in the next mission, then special training will begin, which will last two years. “I have been waiting for this for 30 years, I can wait a few more years,” she joked.

A long but classic process, astronaut Tom Peske, invited to it, emphasized. He also recalled that he completed his first mission in 2016, seven years after starting training, in 2009.

Claudie Haignere mission, turning point

Becoming an astronaut is the result of a particularly mature project by Sophie Adenot, a graduate of the School of Aviation and Astronautics: “There was only one poster in my room – a rocket. Space exploration made me dream from an early age, and the rest came later. »

She causes her first “click” at the age of 10, when she read the biography of Marie Curie, which inspired her greatly and pushed her to turn to a scientific career. But above all, the “rise of Claudie Haignere” in 1996 was a turning point: “It was at that moment that I said to myself: From now on I do my best to get there. »

Sophie Adeno stated that she is “focused” and determined to “prove herself” in order to achieve another dream – participation in the lunar mission. “It’s hard to project yourself, everything is lived how and when,” she said.