Phoning home

What’s the first thing you do when you arrive safely back on Earth after six months in space? ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet makes a quick call to loved ones with a satellite phone upon landing in the Kazakh steppe on 2 June 2017.

Along with cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, he landed at 14:10 GMT after a routine four-hour journey from the International Space Station. Fellow astronaut Peggy Whitson of NASA, who launched with Thomas and Oleg in December, did not return with the duo because her mission was extended.

Like all returning astronauts, Thomas’s vital signs were immediately checked by medical staff at the landing site. Per tradition, Oleg and Thomas then signed their Soyuz landing capsule before leaving the site. The crew were welcomed by the Kazakh government in an official ceremony.

Thomas then boarded a plane to ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, for debriefing and more in-depth tests to understand how his body is adapting to being back on Earth.

During his six-month Proxima mission, Thomas took part in over 60 scientific experiments for ESA and France’s space agency CNES and the international Station partners. The mission is part of ESA’s vision to use Earth-orbiting spacecraft as a place to live and work for the benefit of European society while using the experience to prepare for future voyages of exploration further into the Solar System.

Thomas is doing well and has since given interviews and held a press conference on 6 June on his experience on the Station, his thoughts on returning, and his hopes for future missions to Mars and beyond.

The next ESA astronaut to launch to space is Italian Paolo Nespoli at the end of July.