ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet in the US spacewalk suit

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet in the US spacewalk suit posing for a portrait ahead of his second International Space Station mission, Alpha.

Thomas was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. He joined ESA in September 2009 and completed basic training in November 2010. After graduation, he worked as a Eurocom, communicating with astronauts during spaceflights from the mission control centre. He was also in charge of future projects at the European Astronaut Centre, including initiating cooperation with new partners such as China.

On 17 March 2014, Thomas was assigned to his first long-duration mission on the International Space Station. He was launched to the International Space Station for this six-month Proxima mission, as a flight engineer for Expeditions 50 and 51, on 17 November 2016.

Thomas' second spaceflight was announced on 28 July 2020. He will be travelling to the International Space Station on the second SpaceX Crew Dragon mission together with JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and pilot Megan McArthur. The mission is called Alpha, after Alpha Centauri, the closest stellar system to Earth, following the French tradition to name space missions after stars or constellations. The mission assignment is the first time a European will fly to the Space Station in the Crew Dragon, and the first time from USA in over a decade.

When Thomas is not in space or training for his next mission, he enjoys basketball, jogging, swimming, squash and outdoor sports such as mountain biking, kite surfing, sailing, skiing and mountaineering. He also has extensive experience in scuba diving and skydiving and is a black belt in judo. Thomas' other interests include travelling, playing the saxophone and reading