A former French helicopter test pilot and a Belgian biomedical engineer are ESA's newest graduates selected to fly to the International Space Station (ISS). Sophie Adenot spent hours reading biographies of famous female astronauts from her childhood home in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, France, hoping one day to do the same. That dream came true for the 41-year-old former helicopter test pilot this week as the European Space Agency (ESA) chose her as one of their new recruits for a 2026 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
"Every day I’m pinching myself saying 'this can’t possibly be my life,'" an enthusiastic Adenot told Euronews Next. Adenot and her classmate Raphaël Liégeois, a biomedical engineer from Namur, Belgium just recently finished their one year of basic training with ESA as part of their most recent cohort of future astronauts, culminating in their graduation ceremony on April 22 in Germany. Josef Aschbacher, ESA's director-general, made the announcement during the Space Council in Brussels on Thursday, calling Adenot and Liégeois’ appointments a "significant milestone" for Europe’s ambitions in space.
"As exploration activities develop at an unprecedented rate, sending two newly graduated ESA astronauts to space is a crucial stepping-stone in the path of preserving European knowhow," Aschbacher said. France's Adenot is set for takeoff first, with Liégeois not far behind. "I’m feeling great, it's an important moment in a career, in a life,.