Astronaut Raphaël Liégeois joins army as reservist

Francken posted a photo on X on Friday showing him shaking hands with Liégeois. A year ago, he told him: “Listen, Raphaël, you’re now an astronaut for ESA and will soon be setting off on a space mission, but we could really do with a brilliant scientist like you here too. Would you like to become a reservist in the Ministry of Defence?”

Liégeois has completed the first of the three parts of the reservist training programme. Though he is from Namur, he followed the course in Dutch.

It is not yet clear what plans the army has for him. A reservist must make themselves available to the army for at least five days each year. The Ministry of Defence is running a campaign to attract more reservists and aims to increase their numbers to 10,000.

Liégeois’s predecessor, Frank de Winne, was a fighter pilot in the Royal Belgian Air Force before his space career. He served in Kosovo and has 2,300 flying hours under his belt in aircraft such as the Mirage, the F-16, the Jaguar and the Tornado.

Liégeois is due to embark on his first mission to the International Space Station with the European Space Agency next year. The flight was originally scheduled for the end of this year but has been postponed by at least six months.