First month at astronaut college: "Enthusiasm, fun and sparks in the eyes"

"Enthusiasm, fun, sparks in the eyes”, that’s how Belgian student astronaut Raphaël Liégeois summed up the first month. He was selected in November to become one of five new professional astronauts at the ESA. The others are France’s Sophie Adenot, Spain’s Pablo Álvarez Fernández, Britain’s Rosemary Coogan and Switzeland’s Marco Sieber.

“Since the start of training, I cannot say that anything has been really difficult," the 35-year-old engineer from Namur said. "Some technical challenges pose difficulties, but we have all the necessary support to develop with the instructors and to work more on these challenges. All the resources are available to make progress," said Liégeois, PhD in neuroscience at Liège University.

   The student astronauts attend an average of four to six hours of classes a day. To this must be added physical training and study hours. So the pace is "quite fast, but we expected that," he said. There is no ban on certain foods, but the students do receive nutrition classes. "The regime is not too strict. The idea is that everyone stays in good health."

Basic training will continue until the end of May 2024. From next year, the astronaut who will be the first to leave on a space mission will be designated. That mission will require another two-years of preparation.

From 2026 to 2030, each of the five will have the chance to carry out at least one long six month mission on the International Space Station (ISS), mainly for scientific research. From 2030, one of the five may participate in the Artemis lunar exploration programme. That programme is a preparation for a future mission to Mars.

The first month of training includes information about ESA and space programmes, "but we quickly moved on to technical subject matter, biology in particular, and more specifically applied biology in a space station," the centre's Belgian director, former Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne explained. "That is one of the big areas we are investing in."

"We also addressed some practical aspects. This week, they started more physical training, with tests in a deep pool, preparing for space walks."

According to Frank De Winne, the second Belgian in space, the five candidates "are fantastic people, both in terms of personality and their knowledge domains, which they also teach us." The five were selected from among 20,000 applicants.

Technical training continues with lessons of the operation of the Columbus, the ISS European lab module, and Russian, a language that remains indispensable in the ISS. Moscow still operates part of the International Space Station, despite the geopolitical turmoil. Robotics and spacewalks are also on the programme.

According to the head of the centre, all five are candidates to go to the moon. "Their experience is very diverse, and we are exploring for each of them whether that can give them a special place or not."

So does knowledge in neuroscience offer Raphaël Liégeois a special place? "What is certain is that we will use Raphael's knowledge. Not during the basic training phase, because he needs to concentrate on his training. But afterwards, in our scientific programme. He is a scientist of a very high standard and we will definitely use his expertise to improve our programme."

"As a scientist, I know how we prepare experiments," Liégeois says. He also knows what is expected of those who conduct the experiments. "That is an advantage, but many other aspects are also important in the profile ESA expects of astronauts."

There’s no preferential treatment from the centre's Belgian director, Frank De Winne, for his Belgian pupil, Liégeois assured Belga. "That's clear. Frank is very considerate with each of us, to guide us through this life change, because he knows that straight from the beginning it can be very intimidating."

The five prospective astronauts followed the launch of Starship, SpaceX's giant rocket that NASA wants to use to take astronauts to the moon before Mars. The rocket exploded minutes after launch.

"I don't consider that a failure," Liégeois said. "In every technological development, there are mistakes or failures."

Even when he talks to his comrades about Mars, he does so with his feet on the ground. "The ISS is at a distance of 400 kilometres, the moon a thousand times further and Mars another thousand times further. One day there will be humans on Mars, but that remains a huge challenge. The burning challenge right now is Artemis."