After studying in Toulouse, Sophie Adenot will be the new French astronaut
A French woman is part of the new promotion of astronauts from the European Space Agency. It is Sophie Adenot, graduated from Isae-Supaero in Toulouse.
After receiving more than 22,500 applications, the European Space Agency has revealed the five names that make up its new promotion of astronauts this Wednesday, November 23. There are three men and two women. This cru, succeeds that of 2009, was not part of Thomas Pesquet. The latter reserved to create a craze for the space adventure.
In the new promotion of the European Space Agency, figure French Air Force and Space Force helicopter test pilot Sophie Adenot. She “embodies an example for the future of women in scientific and technical circles, where they are still under-represented”, declared in a joint press release to the Ministry of the Economy and that of Higher Education.
Sophie Adenot 🇫🇷 is one of the 5 career astronauts selected by ESA in this Class 2022 of ESA astronauts.
Discover his portrait at this link 👉 https://t.co/3LmTLSBwNJ https://t.co/Y0UlKEmzGI
— ESA France (@ESA_fr) November 23, 2022
It should be noted that less than one in ten astronauts is a woman. The previous ESA promotion had six people, including a woman, the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti. Sophie Adenot, 40, will be the second French astronaut in history. The first was Claudie Haigneré, more than twenty years ago, in 1996.
Sophie Adenot, a former Isae-Supaéro in Toulouse
In 2004, Sophie Adenot obtained her engineering degree from the National School of Aeronautics and Space, Isae-Supaero in Toulouse. An establishment that has also counted Thomas Pésquet in its ranks.
The Frenchwoman then worked for a year for an Airbus Helicopters design office and then for the Air Force, which she joined in 2005. There, she trained in helicopter piloting and took part in two missions in Afghanistan at the controls of Caracal-type aircraft.
In 2018, Sophie Adenot became the first female experimental helicopter test pilot in France. She has a passion for these machines that comes to her from her grandfather, a former mechanic. In 2021, she was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.