Astronaut Raphaël Liégeois began a three-day tour of Belgium and the Netherlands on Tuesday morning with a meeting with some 200 pupils at the Euro Space Centre in Transinne.
The students – from Oupeye, Tubize and Brussels – also had the chance to hear from astronaut Dirk Frimout.
“Are you afraid of dying?”, “What made you want to study science?”, “Are you stressed?”, “What is the purpose of going into space?” were some of the questions heard as the children, who are in their last year of primary school, took the opportunity to satisfy their curiosity.
Voyage to the ISS between 2026 and 2031
The 35-year-old from Namur, accompanied by Secretary of State Thomas Dermine, the Vice-President of the Walloon government, Willy Borsus, and the regional Minister for Tourism, Valérie De Bue, came to tell the story of the journey that led him to be part of the latest selection at the European Space Agency (ESA).
A 14-month training course that he will start next week in Cologne will take him to the other ESA sites in Europe, as well as to those of NASA and the Japanese space agency.
Raphaël Liégeois should fly to the International Space Station (ISS) between 2026 and 2031 before - perhaps, “if the planets are aligned” - going further away from the Earth, and who knows, to the moon, he explained to the day’s audience.
“Science is fun but above all it is very useful,” Raphaël Liégeois told the children. “It allows you to choose a profession that makes sense, to build a better world and find answers to the challenges” of the planet, such as the effects of climate change, he said to a visibly captivated audience.
Space provides about 2000 jobs in Wallonia
“Belgium is a small country on earth, but a big country in space,” Dutch Secretary of State for Science Policy Thomas Dermine said. “Supporting space means supporting the returns in terms of industry and research, but it also means supporting the dream,” he said later to the press, encouraged by the “stars in the eyes” of the children present at the Tuesday morning meeting. The two Belgian astronauts present, as well as members of the two governments, took part in the photo and selfie session.
“The enthusiasm” for the two astronauts “is an incredible lever to encourage young people towards STEM,” said Willy Borsus, noting that space remains a “major factor in the development of the country and the Walloon region,” where the sector represents some 2,000 jobs.
The rest of the afternoon at the Euro Space Center was devoted to the many players in the sector, who will be presented with the projects selected for the Win4Excellence programme (30 doctoral theses) and the realisation of the investments provided for in the Recovery Plan for the sector.
Also scheduled to go to Liège, KU Leuven
In the evening, Liégeois and Secretary of State Dermine were expected in Charleroi for a conference, before going to Liège on Wednesday to meet secondary school pupils and higher education students.
Also on Wednesday, the three Belgian astronauts, Dirk Frimout, Raphaël Liégeois and Frank De Winne, will take part in a visit to the European Space Technology Centre in the Netherlands, before the Namurian’s tour ends at the KULeuven in the evening.
From next week, he will start his training at the European Space Agency's Cologne site.
