Raphaël Liégeois was selected in November 2022, together with four other Europeans, to be part of the European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut corps, with the initial goal of spending approximately six months on board the International Space Station (ISS). to take. The almost 36-year-old engineer, neuroscientific researcher and hot air balloon pilot has started his basic training. The training takes place mainly at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne (Germany), but also in other partner countries of this international program, including Russia, Japan, Canada and of course the United States.
On Saturday afternoon (local time), the Belgian aspiring astronaut, together with the Prime Minister, visited the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center of the American Space Agency in Houston, Texas. Like the Prime Minister and his delegation, he was able to see life-size reproductions of the various modules that make up the ISS, as well as a replica of the future spacecraft for the Artemis mission, the NASA program that aims to return humans to the ISS by 2025. to bring moon.
“It’s the first time I’m here in Houston and it’s very moving,” Raphaël Liégeois told some journalists. “We will be here for two years once we get a mission,” he added. The five new European astronauts are all expected to go into space between 2026 and 2030.