Raphaël Liégeois is one of ESA’s five astronaut candidates currently undergoing basic astronaut training at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne. Join us as we speak to Raphaël about his first months of training and living in Germany, the philosophy of neuroscience, piloting hot air balloons, his favourite training lesson so far, and what he is excited about for the future of space exploration.

This is the second episode of our ESA Explores podcast series introducing the ESA astronaut class of 2022. It was recorded in November 2023.

Find out more about Raphaël: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Astronauts/Raphael_Liegeois

And about ESA’s astronaut class of 2022: https://blogs.esa.int/exploration/category/astronauts2022/esa-astronaut-candidates/

Here’s the answer to one of our most FAQ ;) https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/11/How_to_go_to_the_toilet_in_space_-_English

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