On 17 November 2016, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will be the tenth French astronaut to be launched into space, alongside Roscosmos commander Oleg Novitsky and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. <br /> <br />They will travel from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazachstan on the Soyuz MS-03, a recently upgraded version of Russia’s workhorse that has been in service for almost 50 years. <br /> <br />Thomas’s mission is called Proxima and it is the ninth long-duration mission for an ESA astronaut. It was named after the closed star to the Sun – continuing a tradition of naming missions with French astronauts after stars and constellations. <br /> <br />During Proxima, Thomas will perform more than 50 scientific experiments for ESA and CNES as well as take part in many research activities for the other Space Station partners.
