French astronaut recounts 'astonishing' emotions after return to Earth
Adenot splashed down in the Pacific Ocean Thursday off the coast of California in the Dragon capsule that carried Crew-12, having returned to Earth from a mission on the International Space Station (ISS).
She was accompanied by fellow ISS colleagues Americans Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway and the Russian Andrei Fedyaev.
During the mission, Adenot became the first French female astronaut to venture outside the space station for a spacewalk. In all, she undertook three spacewalks on 18 and 25 August and 1 September.
She had spent a total of 237 days in space, breaking the record for the longest uninterrupted orbital stay by a European astronaut.
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At 400 km away from Earth, Adenot could see there are "no divisions, no borders" but "just a precious planet that we all share," she said Saturday on the tarmac of the European Space Agency (ESA) training centre in Cologne, occasionally in tears.
The 44-year-old astronaut looked visibly weakened on her arrival in Germany and was assisted by two ESA physicians.
"It's a cocktail of astonishing emotions, it's incredible. It's great to be back on Earth, but it also comes with its share of challenges, especially physiological ones," she told a press conference.
"Tears follow weightlessness now; I wasn't used to that anymore," she joked. "I went into space full of dreams, and I returned full of gratitude," she added, hailing "that sense of unity among people who have decided to be united."
Recovery programme
Adenot must now begin an intensive recovery program of about three weeks to regain her pre-flight condition.
In space, the body adapts to the absence of gravity, which leads to bone loss, muscle wasting, cardiovascular deconditioning and even visual problems.
She described the "difficult" moment of Thursday's splashdown, when the capsule bringing back the four astronauts on her team had to endure "a lot of waves for 25 minutes".
"And when the commandos pulled me out of the capsule, the first thing I said to them was, 'Send me back to space, please!' It was much easier up there," she added.
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As well as conducting spacewalks, Adenot conducted around 200 French and international scientific experiments aboard the ISS, spanning fields from health research to materials science, biology, fluid physics, radiation physics and fundamental science.
In space, microgravity makes it possible to reveal physical phenomena that cannot be observed on Earth due to gravity.
Following in the footsteps of her French predecessor, Thomas Pesquet – the first French astronaut to make extensive use of social media to document his time in space – Adenot opted for a series of video clips titled "Sunday Morning Science."
This weekly two-minute segment on science communication allowed her to explain the laws of physics or the effects of life in space in a fun and engaging way.
(with AFP)