N° 13–2021: Alpha: Second Space Station mission for ESA’s Thomas Pesquet begins

The crew spent around 23 hours orbiting Earth and catching up with the International Space Station after their launch on 23 April at 10:49 BST (11:49 CEST, 05:49 local time).

Thomas is the first ESA astronaut to fly in space in a vehicle other than the Russian Soyuz or the US Space Shuttle, and the first ESA astronaut to leave Earth from Florida, USA, in over a decade. This is his second flight, his first mission called Proxima saw Thomas fly to the Space Station on a Soyuz from Baikonur in Kazakhstan and his expedition broke records for amount of hours spent on research at the time.

Bigger and better

For Alpha everything is set to be bigger and better. The new Crew Dragon ships four astronauts at a time allowing for more people to live and work on the International Space Station doing more research for scientists on Earth.

A Russian laboratory module is set to arrive in the summer with a European robotic arm that will offer more ways of maintaining the International Space Station and support spacewalkers as they work outside. Thomas will help in setting up the arm and preparing it for use during the Alpha mission.

Faster and smarter

As the new crew arrived on the International Space Station through a commercial spaceflight, the Station itself is offering further commercial access to space.

“I salute Thomas and the crew as they embark on another six-month adventure of work and science in space,” says ESA’s Director General Josef Aschbacher, “the Alpha mission is a testament to what we can do in international, governmental and commercial collaboration.

“There are three European commercial services offering facilities for organisations to run their own experiments cheaply and quickly in humankind’s unique laboratory in space, both inside and out, your experiment could be flying in just six months’ time.”

Over 200 experiments are planned during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency CNES.

At the end of the Alpha mission in October, Thomas is slated to take over commandership role of the International Space Station for a brief period and welcome ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer on his first flight to space.

Further information

Latest updates on the Alpha mission can be found via @esaspaceflight on Twitter, with more details on ESA’s exploration blog via thomaspesquet.esa.int.

Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure.

Social media

Follow ESA on

Twitter: @esa, @esaspaceflight, @Thom_astro
Instagram: Europeanspaceagency
Facebook: EuropeanSpaceAgency
YouTube: ESA

Images

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images

Terms and conditions for using ESA images:
www.esa.int/spaceinimages/ESA_Multimedia/Copyright_Notice_Images

For questions or more information related to ESA images, please contact directly spaceinimages@esa.int.

Videos

Video B-roll of Thomas’ training for the Alpha mission is available on ESA’s videos for professionals:
https://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2020/12/Thomas_Pesquet_Alpha_mission_training

https://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2021/03/Thomas_Pesquet_Mission

https://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2021/03/Thomas_Pesquet_Bio_Training

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos

Terms and conditions for using ESA videos:
https://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Terms_and_Conditions

For questions or more information related to ESA videos, please contact directly spaceinvideos@esa.int.

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Slovenia and Latvia are Associate Members.

ESA has established formal cooperation with six Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.

Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int

For further information:

ESA Newsroom and Media Relations Office – Ninja Menning

Email: media@esa.int

Tel: +31 71 565 6409