Crewed Flights

France’s Sophie Adenot and Belgium’s Raphaël Liégeois will go into space in 2026

Published on 22 May 2024

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced on 22 May that Sophie Adenot and Raphaël Liégeois will be the first of their 2022 class to carry out long-term missions on board the International Space Station (ISS).

On the first day of the Space Council, which took place in Brussels on 22 and 23 May, ESA revealed the first two missions for the five new 2022 recruits.

On 22 April, Sophie Adenot of France, Pablo Alvarez of Spain, Rosemary Coogan of Great Britain, Raphaël Liégeois of Belgium and Marco Sieber of Switzerland, all of whom are part of the ESA selection, as well as Katherine Bennell-Pegg of Australia (as part of an agreement) were awarded their official astronaut diplomas at the end of a year’s training. Effectively, this group of six, nicknamed The Hoppers, can now be assigned to a space mission.

SOPHIE ADENOT AND RAPHAËL LIÉGEOIS COULD CROSS PATHS ON BOARD THE ISS!

For the moment, the exact details of the two missions entrusted to the French and Belgian astronauts have yet to be defined. Let’s take a look at the main things that have been announced.

SOPHIE ADENOT, SECOND FRENCH WOMEN IN SPACE

We know that Sophie Adenot, born 1982, has been entrusted with the first mission of the class of 2022. An engineer, helicopter test pilot and colonel in the French Air and Space Force, she will become the second French woman in orbit after Claudie Haigneré when she boards the International Space Station in 2026.

It has been specified that it will be a long-term mission on board the ISS, so around six months. Sophie Adenot will now undergo mission-specific training, including at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

In the video at the end of the article, she acknowledges that “it’s going to be intense, it’s going to be concentrated, time will be very tight,” not forgetting to add: “but I’m ready.”

ophie Adenot familiarising herself with weightlessness during a zero-g flight by Novespace.
© ESA-A. Conigli

Raphaël Liégeois during a pool training session at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. This type of training is aimed at astronauts familiarising themselves with the procedures of a spacewalk in a spacesuit.
© ESA

RAPHAËL LIÉGEOIS, THIRD BELGIAN IN SPACE

Her ESA colleague, Raphaël Liégeois, will also be carryingout a long-term mission on board the ISS. Born in 1988, this doctor of neuroscience is getting ready to be the third Belgian in space after Dirk Frimout and Frank De Winne. Of his assignment to an ISS flight just after Adenot’s, he even explains that “it’s coming a little earlier than I expected” (see the video).
In its press release, the ESA stresses that “Sophie will be the first to fly, quickly followed by Raphaël.” Depending on the launch schedule, the Belgian could therefore arrive on board the station before the French woman returns to Earth in line with a handover where the new crew spends a few days up there along with the one about to return. “All going well, we should share a few days on board the ISS,” confirmed Raphaël Liégeois.

The first impressions of Sophie Adenot and Raphaël Liégeois of their selection for a long-term ISS mission (in French language from an ESA video).

Preserving European know-how

During these two missions, Sophie Adenot and Raphaël Liégeois will participate in the life of the ISS and will carry out several scientific experiments “including several from Europe” specifies the ESA. The station is a unique laboratory since weightlessness allows research impossible to carry out on Earth.
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher further emphasizes that, in a context where “exploration activities are developing at an unprecedented pace, the selection of two recently graduated ESA astronauts is a crucial step to preserve our European know-how and thus guarantee Europe’s participation in current programs, such as Artemis, or in future projects involving human spaceflight and human exploration”.

Josef Aschbacher, Director General of ESA, with Rosemary Coogan, Sophie Adenot and Raphaël Liégeois, on April 22 during the astronaut graduation ceremony.
© ESA/P. Sebirot