About this episode
Right now, 400 kilometres above the Earth's surface, orbiting at 17,500 miles per hour, or five miles per second, the new crew of the International Space Station are settling in. Among them is Sophie Adenot, the second female French astronaut. French former astronaut Michel Tognini shares his thoughts on this historic mission. The team of four that make up Expedition 74 set off on Friday morning from Cape Canaveral. They are Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway from the US; Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev; and Sophie Adenot, the second female astronaut from France after Claudie Haigneré three decades ago. The ISS is considered the most expensive human-made engineering project in history, a total cost over its lifetime estimated at around $150 to 160 billion. Since 2000, for 25 years, it has been continuously occupied by humans living and working in a set of capsules in a football field-sized space, pushing the boundaries of science in space. Sophie Adenot, a former helicopter pilot from Burgundy, says she's dreamed of this moment since she was tiny, despite the slim odds of doing it. She also says her family encouraged her from the start. We hear from French former astronaut Michel Tognini.
