Video: 00:27:08

Sophie Adenot is one of ESA's five astronaut candidates currently undergoing basic astronaut training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. Tune in as she shares her experiences in astronaut training, her favourite lessons, as well as tips on maintaining the balance and achieving your dreams.

This is Episode 6 of our ESA Explores podcast series introducing the ESA astronaut class of 2022, recorded in November 2023.

Music and audio editing by Denzel Lorge. Cover art by Gaël Nadaud.

Access all ESA Explores podcasts.

Video: 00:04:45

They say it takes a village to raise a child. To launch a rocket, we have the combined expertise and passion of Space Team Europe. Michel Bonnet is one of many making the first Ariane 6 launch possible, and has been interviewed as part of a series highlighting some of the people that make up this dream team.

“Who has not dreamed of working in the space sector?” he says, recalling how he built small rockets as a teenager using sodium chlorate, sulphur and sugar. In 1995, after years of work with helicopters and nuclear submarines, Michel started

A mock-up of ESA’s habitation module on the upcoming lunar Gateway space station is now ready for testing at Thales Alenia Space in Turin, marking a step forward in bringing humans back to the Moon.

Video: 00:02:04

A reaction wheel – one of the heaviest parts of a space mission, its changing rotation used to shift a satellite’s orientation – seen in a plasma wind tunnel belonging to the High Enthalpy Flow Diagnostics Group (HEFDiG) at the University of Stuttgart Institute of Space Systems (IRS). Arc-heated gas in the test chamber reaches speeds of several kilometres per second, reproducing reentry conditions, while the reaction wheel itself is being rotated, reproducing the tumbling that takes place as a satellite plunges through the atmosphere.

The reaction wheel itself comes from Collins Aerospace in Germany, which has supported Design for Demise (D4D) activities

Image: Blowtorch effect of satellite reentry

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