Barely returned to Earth, the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet is again in the air, at the controls of a humanitarian plane which took off on Wednesday April 13 for the Central African Republic, noted an AFP journalist at the Paris airport of Bourget.
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"
I didn't just want to give my image, or send messages of support, but to do something more
," said the European Space Agency astronaut during a press conference organized before take-off by the NGO Aviation without Borders.
“I would love to go on the pitch, because that's really where I feel useful”
Thomas Pésquet
Thomas Pesquet, who returned from his second mission aboard the International Space Station in November, uses his training as an airline pilot for this association, of which he is a sponsor.
Aviation sans Frontières delivers food and medicine and carries out medical evacuations for 120 NGOs and international organizations.
Aircraft ferried from the United States
"
The plane makes it possible to get rid of the rutted bush tracks and the 'road cutters'
", bandits who attack motorists in Africa, indicates Jean-Yves Grosse, head of air operations for Aviation Sans Frontières.
The plane the astronaut is piloting, a brand new Cessna Grand Caravan, was ferried in February from Kansas, United States.
The Frenchman is one of the pilots in charge of bringing him to a safe port, even if the NGO did not specify whether he would go to the end of the journey.
His exact route has also not been disclosed, for security reasons.
Ongoing training to carry out missions
To replace its second aging device, the NGO still needs 1.5 million euros, which it seeks to raise thanks to its partners and donations.
Thomas Pesquet still needs a few flight hours to be fully qualified on the aircraft - he is therefore not the captain - and to be able to carry out missions in Bangui, in the Central African Republic, or in Bunia, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the two countries where Aviation sans Frontières deploys its planes.
"
I would love to go out on the pitch, because that's really where I feel useful
," Thomas Pesquet told AFP shortly before his departure.
Earlier, he had worried about the long-term consequences of the war in Ukraine on space cooperation with Russia.
Read alsoReturn of Thomas Pesquet: "Finding gravity is not necessarily easier the second time"
"
We can clearly see that we are not committing to the cooperation of tomorrow and, unfortunately, in the space sector projects are developed in five, ten, fifteen years, so the consequences of what is happening at the moment will be seen in a few years;
they won't be positive, that's for sure
,” he lamented.
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