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Macron pressures Harris to make a French astronaut the first European to step on the Moon

MADRID, 1 Dic.

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Macron pressures Harris to make a French astronaut the first European to step on the Moon

MADRID, 1 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

French President Emmanuel Macron has pressured US Vice President Kamala Harris to select a French astronaut as the first European to walk on the Moon on NASA's Artemis III mission.

In a joint press conference after the French president's visit to NASA headquarters, Macron has proposed astronaut Thomas Pesquet, 44, as the European who could join the US team in "going one step further and landing on the Moon".

Mentioning the Artemis missions of the US space agency, the president of France has shown Harris "very interested in participating": "I have a candidate for you to fly to the moon. And Thomas is very enthusiastic and very excited to be part of this," Macron said with a laugh.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in June that three European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts will accompany NASA on the mission that will send people back to Earth's satellite for the first time. since 1972. NASA has already detailed that the earliest possible date to land on the lunar surface is the year 2025.

"We hope that an ESA astronaut will join us on the surface of the Moon and continue to build on our longstanding and critical partnership," Nelson said, as reported by The Hill newspaper.

In this sense, ESA will ultimately decide which astronauts will accompany NASA and has not made any official announcement, although it will be the US space agency that will decide which European astronaut will accompany them on the lunar landing.

Pesquet, 44, is from Rouen, in northwestern France, and joined ESA in 2009. He has been to the International Space Station twice, including one mission last year.