Thomas Pesquet: space ambassador and president of the stars [English version]

Thomas Pesquet: space ambassador and president of the stars

(Jeux Olympiques, 2021)

By Giselle Bourgoing

Who is Thomas Pesquet, and why is he recently been called ambassador of space and president of the stars? Today we are going to talk about an astronaut who has positioned Earth’s name up high in outer space, and who has done an outstanding job representing our celestial body.

Born on 27 February 1978 in France, Pesquet had space shuttles and plane posters handed all over his room because he had the dream of one day becoming an astronaut. After a lot of maths and physics, he majored in spacecraft design and control from l’École Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace in Toulouse (République Française, 2022). Before becoming an astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA), he was an aerospace engineer and worked for le Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the French space agency. In 2004, he was chosen for Air France’s flight training programme, where he logged more than 2000 flight hours as a commercial pilot. The turning point in his career was when he joined the ESA and started his training as an astronaut in Europe, Russia, and the USA. After having trained in caves and underwater, he was assigned his first mission to the International Space Station (ISS) where he stayed for six months in 2016 (ESA, 2016).

There have been 10 French astronauts in space, and he is the fourth one to travel to the ISS, so what makes Thomas Pesquet so special? The key is in the democratisation of outer space exploration. 

(NASA, 2021)

Likewise, a key element of Pesquet’s success is his space content in French. This content tends to be created mainly in English by organisations like NASA, UNOOSA, and SpaceX. Although in the past few years these organisations are producing more content in other languages, like Spanish with NASA en Español, English is still the predominant language. However, Thomas Pesquet shares space videos, pictures, capsules, and even blogs in English and French, making space accessible beyond English speakers. Also, thanks to the work of the ESA, outer space research is being democratised beyond the intervention of NASA and Roscosmos, making more countries like France, Germany, and Italy part of this exploration. 

With 2.6 million followers on Instagram and 2.8 million on Facebook, Pesquet has overpassed Chris Hadfield's outreach on social media, making him the current most-followed astronaut to this day. It is crucial to talk about Hadfield's impact to put into perspective the impact of Pesquet's interaction with his followers. Hadfield became famous on social media before Pesquet in 2013, not only because he became the first Canadian astronaut to walk in space, but because of his original YouTube videos. Brushing his teeth, playing Space Oddity on his guitar, and eating chocolate pudding cake are just ordinary yet extraordinary things that made him connect with people on Earth while being in space. With the support of the Canadian space agency, he started using social media as a way to be transparent with the public about what it is like daily life in space (BBC News, 2013). Thanks to Chris Hadfield’s work with social media, astronauts such as Thomas Pesquet had an easier path sharing their work since space agencies realised the power of outer space content in the internet community.  

It is the dichotomy between heroism and relatable.

Pesquet is known in France as a “national hero”, and some people believe that he has the work of a demi-god. However, the duality between these concepts is what makes him connect even more with the public. On the one hand, his “working trips” are a six-month stay on the ISS, doing space research and weekly spacewalks; which sounds like something out of a sci-fi film. Yet, on the other hand, Pesquet offers the world the other side of the story by sharing how he does sport on board, forms friendships with the other astronauts, skypes with his family, plays the saxophone, and even fixes the ISS toilet! Pesquet even made a recent appearance for the promotion video of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games playing la Marseillaise on his saxophone from the ISS (Jeux Olympiques, 2021).

Pesquet does not limit himself when it comes to space, he is also part of the commission of foreign affairs on France's national assembly. There, scientists, lawyers, members of the armed forces, and even astronauts like Pesquet, discuss outer space affairs, the use of new technologies, security strategies, emerging industries and environmental space challenges. Pesquet has exposed to the foreign affairs commission the importance of the future of outer space and his personal experience as an astronaut. He talks about ESA's mission to strengthen international cooperation to face space challenges such as space debris, international security, scientific research, and how to stop the militarisation of space (Assemblée Nationale, 2019). Having this wide variety of members of the legal and STEM field in a commission for foreign affairs is just outstanding for outer space policymaking.

(Pesquet, 2021)

Nevertheless, one of the most important things that have made Thomas Pesquet win the nickname of “president of the stars” is his science content for scientists and non-scientists. During his trips to the ISS, he constantly shares pictures taken from the station that show a specific place on Earth. Whether it is a tweet, an Instagram story, or a Facebook post, he explains in a not-so-hard-to-comprehend-scientific terminology, how the station works, what they do onboard, space debris, astronaut training, climate change, and the importance of space exploration. He is an advocate for fighting climate change and explains how outer space research can be a way to find answers to Earth’s challenges. As he mentioned in his interview with CNN “We're creative enough, we have the technology and we have the will. So I'm optimistic for the future. If we can make a space station fly, then we can save the planet” (Blendis, 2022).

In ius cosmos we wish Thomas Pesquet and the rest of the European astronauts the best of luck in his next project as possible members of the Artemis programme. If you want to follow Thomas Pesquet, Chris Hadfield or ius cosmos on social media I leave you the usernames. 

Thomas Pesquet: @thom_astro [instagram and twitter] 

Chris Hadfield: @colchrishadfield [instagram] @Cmdr_Hadfield [twitter]

Ius cosmos: @ius.cosmos [instagram] 

 

Bibliography 

Assemblée Nationale. (2019). Table ronde, ouverte à la presse, sur l’espace et ses enjeux scientifiques, stratégiques, industriels et environnementaux. Assemblée Nationale. https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/15/comptes-rendus/cion_afetr/l15cion_afetr1920025_compte-rendu

BBC News. (2013). SECRET OF CHRIS HADFIELD’S SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS - #BBCtrending [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMWXP2mKGgM&ab_channel=BBCNews

Blendis, S. (2022, January 24). The astronaut caring for “spaceship Earth.” CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/24/europe/thomas-pesquet-iss-climate-change-c2e-scn-spc-intl/index.html

European Space Agency. (2014). Thomas Pesquet. Esa.int. https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Astronauts/Thomas_Pesquet#:~:text=Born%20in%20Rouen%2C%20France%2C%20on,in%20scuba%20diving%20and%20skydiving

European Space Agency. (2016). Thomas Pesquet’s space bedroom (French) [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzu4ieX1Yd0&t=3s&ab_channel=EuropeanSpaceAgency%2CESA

Jeux Olympiques [Paris 2024]. (2021, 8 agosto). La Marseillaise s’empare de Paris [Vídeo]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBNjyvbqRYY&feature=youtu.be

La France insoumise - Groupe parlementaire. (2020). La guerre de l’espace aura-t-elle lieu ? (ft. Thomas Pesquet) [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih8bsQ5pGEM&ab_channel=LaFranceinsoumise-Groupeparlementaire

NASA. (2021). Astronaut Thomas Pesquet cleans up plant debris. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/astronaut-thomas-pesquet-cleans-up-plant-debris

Pesquet, T. [@thom_astro].  (2021, Nov 1). [Photograph of Aurora galore] Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/CVv2C5LqOVx/

République Française. (2022). France Alumni - Thomas Pesquet. Francealumni.fr. https://www.francealumni.fr/en/magazine/back-to-france/thomas-pesquet-31138