French astronaut Thomas Pesquet pleaded in Washington on Tuesday for Europe to " start now " to build its own manned flight program, an idea that is gradually gaining ground .
For Thomas Pesquet, it is vital that the European Space Agency (ESA) receives the necessary funding to be able to launch its astronauts itself in the future, something that only the United States, Russia and China are currently doing.
" This subject is gaining momentum right now ," he said from NASA headquarters in Washington, where a press conference was being held with his former ISS mission mates.
" During the late 80s, early 90s, we had this goal of becoming more independent in terms of access to space for humans, but it didn't work as expected, Germany had to reunite, the budgets have been redirected ," he recalled.
Today, the members of Europe find a certain unity in the face of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. And ESA members should capitalize on their influence, according to the astronaut.
" These subjects, such as European diplomacy, European defence, are coming back to the table, and with that also comes the question of manned spaceflight ", explained Thomas Pesquet.
One option for ESA could be to place a habitable craft on the Ariane 6 rocket currently under development, and due to debut from French Guiana at the end of the year.
" We have to start now, because the development cycles are long. The idea is not that it will only happen in 15 or 20 years ," he said.
Thomas Pesquet was also keen to push back against the idea that the increased role of space companies would make government agencies obsolete.
“ There is this perception in the population that the private sector, like Elon Musk or SpaceX, is leading the dance, which is not true at all ,” he said.
Private industry has always been very involved, whether for space shuttles or Ariane rockets, he recalled. " What we've done is give them more autonomy, saying 'we need this service, you will provide it to us at a competitive cost '".
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