Raphaël was born in Belgium in 1988 and has a background in biomedical engineering and neuroscience. "Just one month ago, we all gathered to celebrate the end of our basic training, and now, I have the chance of being assigned a mission to the ISS. I simply cannot wait to tackle this new upcoming challenge and to be able to wear, up there, the colours of Belgium and ESA!"

As they progress to subsequent phases of pre-assignment and mission-specific training, Sophie and Raphaël gain more in-depth knowledge acquired during basic astronaut training, while travelling to all partner sites, and prepare for their assigned missions, focusing on specific tasks and experiments to be performed in space.

During their missions on the Space Station, ESA astronauts will perform numerous scientific experiments, many of them originating from Europe, conduct medical research, contribute to Earth observation, and be involved in Space Station operational and maintenance tasks.