THomas Pesquet Will he succeed Eugene Andrew Sernan and Harrison Shamit? During the Apollo 17 mission between December 11 and December 14, 1972, both of these Americans are the last people to set foot on the lunar land. Thirty-five years later, a space mission is scheduled on Earth’s natural satellite. For 2024. And with French astronauts expected to be part of it, this is only the second time he has been involved in his flourishing career at the International Space Station (ISS), where he will conduct several scientific experiments for the next mission to the moon.

“It makes us dream, yes,” he admits to Francinfo. “We have a lot of activities that actually pave the way for further scientific research in space along with the Moon and Mars in our sites. And I, being the youngest (one of the people in the ISS, editor’s note), I tell myself that personally, maybe it will concern me. 43-year-old Thomas Peskett had already accepted his “lunar desires” to RTL before he flew again to space: “Going to the moon, I dream of it, because this will be the next logical step”.

2024, a realistic goal?

“We are still doing a lot of research to do on the moon, there is a lot to learn, but above all we know that this is an inevitable iteration. It is to cross the Mediterranean Sea by airplane while we want to cross the Atlantic. […] Read more