Sand Tom

Tom Pesque was born on February 27, 1978 in Rouen , ( Seine-Maritime department , Upper Normandy region , France ) ^{[1] [2]} in a family of teachers whose parents were farmers on both sides ^[3] .

In 1998, he graduated from the Lyceum of Pierre Cornell in Rouen, continued his studies at the Higher School of Aeronautics and Space Research in Toulouse , which he graduated in 2001 and received a Master of Science with a degree in Design and Control of Spacecraft. He spent the last year of his studies at the Polytechnic School in Montreal ( Canada ) under the exchange program for students studying aeronautics and astronautics. In April - September of the same year, he completed an engineering internship at the French-Italian aerospace company Eng. Thales Alenia Space in Cannes (France). Then, until 2002, he worked as an engineer for the dynamics of remote sensing spacecraft in the English company . GMV SA in Madrid (Spain) ^{[1] [2]} .

In 2002-2004, he worked as a research engineer at the French Space Agency, where he dealt with the autonomy of space missions. In 2002, he was a representative of the National Center for Space Research on the International Advisory Committee on Space Data Communication Information Systems . He is a member of the French Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics ^[1] .

In 2004, as an amateur pilot, he was selected to a flight school to train Air France pilots. In 2006 he graduated from the airline’s flight school and received the ATPL-IR transport pilot license with access to instrument flight. Before enrolling in the astronaut squad, he worked as an Airbus-320s pilot at Air France. He has more than 2300 flying hours on passenger aircraft, became an Airbus A320 inspector instructor and crew resource instructor ^[1] .

In May 2009, one out of six out of 8,413 candidates for the ESA astronaut squad was selected during the fourth recruitment. On November 22, 2010, after completing a general space training course, he received a certificate from the ESA astronaut. He worked as a flight manager at the Mission Control Center in Munich (Germany), and also at the European Center of Astronauts was responsible for developing plans for future cooperation with new partners, in particular, with colleagues from China ^{[1] [2]} .

In the fall of 2010, a training session was held at the Cosmonaut Training Center. Yu.A. Gagarin . During the session, he studied the Russian language, the ISS Russian segment , the Soyuz spacecraft and Sokol type suits, conducted training on visual and instrumental observations during a flight on the Tu-134 special aircraft ^[2] . In January 2012, he underwent training on working out the crew’s actions after landing in a wooded area in winter ^[4] .

In September 2013, T. Peske took part in training simulating work in outer space, which took place at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in the underwater research and training center "Aquarius" ^[5] .

Since November 2013, he was trained as a backup crew of the ISS-45/46 / EP-18 as a flight engineer of Soyuz TMA-18M TPK and as an ISS EP-18 flight engineer. In 2014, he was appointed flight engineer of the Soyuz TMA-18M backup crew. Since September 2015, he was trained as part of the ISS-48/49 backup crew as a flight engineer of Soyuz MS TPK and as an ISS-48/49 flight engineer ^[2] .

In February 2016, as part of a conditional crew, he participated in a training on actions in the event of an emergency landing in a wooded and marshy area in winter. In May 2016, at the Cosmonaut Training Center, along with cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and astronaut Peggy Witson, he passed an examination training on the Soyuz MS spacecraft simulator and a pre-flight examination training on the ISS Russian segment. On July 6, 2016, he was approved as a flight engineer of the Soyuz MS spacecraft backup crew; on July 7, 2016, during the launch of the Soyuz MS spacecraft, he was part of the backup crew ^[2] .

On October 24, 2016 he passed an examination training on the simulator of the ISS Russian segment, and on October 25, 2016 a comprehensive test training on the simulator of the Soyuz TPK. On October 26, 2016, at a meeting of the Interagency Commission at the Cosmonaut Training Center, a crew of Oleg Novitsky, Tom Peske and Peggy Witson was recommended to continue prelaunch training at the Baikonur Cosmodrome as the main crew ^[2] .

On October 24–25, 2016, the main and backup crews of the Soyuz MS-03 TPK completed a comprehensive examination training program at the Yu.A. Gagarin CPK ^[6] . On October 26, the Interdepartmental Commission at the Cosmonaut Training Center recommended the ISS-50/51 crews to continue prelaunch training at the Baikonur Cosmodrome ^[7] .

Tom Pesque became the tenth representative of France, who visited space. During the space flight, he was the youngest astronaut ESA ^[8] .

It started on November 17, 2016 at 23:20:13 Moscow time from the “ Gagarin launch ” of the Baikonur cosmodrome as flight engineer-1 of the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft (call sign - Kazbek) and flight engineer of the International Space Station crew under the ISS-50 / 51 major space expeditions. The commander of the Soyuz MS-03 crew is Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky , flight engineer-2 astronaut (NASA) Peggy Witson ^[9] .

The TPK flight took place according to the 34-turn (two-day) approach scheme to the ISS ^[9] . On November 20, 2016 at 01:01 Moscow time, Soyuz MS-03 docked at the docking station of the Rassvet Small Research Module (MIM-1) of the Russian segment of the International Space Station. After checking the tightness of the docking and equalizing the pressure between the spacecraft and the station, the new crew went aboard the ISS ^[10] .

During the flight, he made two spacewalks with a total duration of 12 hours 32 minutes. The first exit took place on January 13, 2017, together with astronaut R. Sh. Kimbro - lasting 5 hours 58 minutes. Astronauts installed and connected three lithium-ion batteries, and also completed six additional tasks for station maintenance ^[11] . Astronauts in the same composition made the second exit on March 24, 2017 - lasting 6 hours 34 minutes. During spacewalk, astronauts replaced two cameras on the outer surface of the Japanese module, lubricated the Canadian ISS Canadarm manipulator, replaced the bulbs on the station's lighting fixtures, and prepared for the subsequent transfer from the Calm module to the Harmony module of the hermetic docking adapter (PMA -3) for subsequent mounting on it the IDA International Docking Adapter. Astronauts also inspected the radiator, in which an ammonia leak had previously been detected ^[12] .

On June 2, 2017 at 13:47 Moscow time, the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft with Oleg Novitsky and Tom Peske successfully undocked from the ISS. At 17:10:38 Moscow time, the lander of the ship landed 147 km southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan . The flight duration was 196 days ^[13] .

Statistics ^[14]

On January 22, 2019, the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation of France Frederic Vidal announced that Tom Pesce was elected to fly into space before the end of 2020. This choice was supported by ESA Director Johann-Dietrich Werner . The appointment to the new space mission Peske must be approved by the international partners on the ISS ^[15] .

Married to Anna Mottet ^[16] . Tom Peske speaks five languages ​​- French, English, Spanish, German and Russian. He studied the sixth - North Chinese (Mandarin) language ^[17] .

He has been fond of sports since childhood, has a black judo belt, is engaged in swimming , jogging , paragliding , mountain climbing , diving , squash , mountain biking ^[2] .

He plays the saxophone , loves to read. Radio amateur with the call sign KG5FYG ^[18] .