Aki and Thomas in cupola

JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide (left) and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet in the European-built Cupola observatory that is part of the International Space Station.

Thomas flew to the International Space Station as part of the Crew-2 mission in April 2021, with Matthias set to join him in space in November 2021.

Thomas commented on this photo:

"In the weekend there is usually somebody in the Cupola... but we each have different preferred times. We set the International Space Station clocks to GMT, which is two hours before Central European Summer Time. So I get up early (to see Europe). Shane gets his camera ready in the afternoon our time which means the Sun has risen over USA and then Aki spends our night hours getting the best shots of Japan... unless we want to take pictures of our regions at night on Earth and then we switch times!"

Over 200 experiments are planned during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency CNES.

Latest updates on the Alpha mission can be found via @esaspaceflight on Twitter, with more details on ESA’s exploration blog via thomaspesquet.esa.int.

Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure.