A third space mission beckons for Thomas Pesquet and a big first for Arnaud Prost. With France’s ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot already aboard the International Space Station (ISS), U.S. firm Vast and the French government have signed an agreement to fly her fellow countrymen on two commercial space missions. The news was announced on 1 June by President Emmanuel Macron at the Choose France Summit, where Vast also unveiled its commitment to base its European headquarters in Paris.
Having already flown on two ESA missions to the ISS, Thomas Pesquet is in line to fly on the PAM-6 commercial mission to the station. For ESA reserve astronaut Arnaud Prost the mission to Vast’s Haven-1 space station will be not only his first space mission, but also a world-first flight to a commercial orbital outpost.
About Vast
Headquartered in Long Beach, California, and with more than 1,000 employees, U.S. firm Vast has built the facilities required to manufacture and operate a commercial space station, Haven-1. The company plans to develop future habitats and systems for the Moon and Mars, dedicated space stations for government partners, as well as other crewed systems.
Why is France embarking on these short missions?
Due to its age and to the cost of operating and maintaining it, the ISS is set to be decommissioned after 2030. In a shifting global space landscape driven by institutional and private players, a number of commercial space station projects are in development. Vast’s Haven-1 station is currently being assembled at the company’s Long Beach facility in California, with a view to being launched in 2027. It is poised to become the first orbiting station of its kind.
Through this agreement with Vast, France is grasping the opportunity to secure access to low Earth orbit for its astronauts and for the hundreds of people working behind the scenes to prepare and track their missions, like those at CNES’s CADMOS centre for the development of microgravity applications and space operations.
The agreement also shows the high renown in which France’s human spaceflight expertise is held around the world, both for its astronauts and for its teams preparing and conducting space missions.
France, the only European nation with three active duty astronauts
With Arnaud Prost’s first mission now set for 2027, France is the only European nation with three astronauts on active duty. After these next two missions, they will each have acquired very different skills and experience, giving France an edge to respond effectively to all post-ISS space exploration scenarios in a highly uncertain context.
The agreement confirms France’s agility in adapting to the reshaped global space landscape that is partly driving the need to adopt a new model: by purchasing a commercial spaceflight, France is able to rapidly secure flight opportunities for its astronauts without having to fund infrastructure development.
CNES will be supporting the two missions with its expertise in crewed spaceflight through CADMOS and the MEDES space clinic. A large number of French players from the space ecosystem and academia will also be contributing.
What are Thomas Pesquet and Arnaud Prost’s missions with Vast seeking to accomplish?
The two missions, each lasting two weeks, will be devoted to science, educational outreach and technology demonstrations, for which CNES, as the French space agency, will be bringing the benefit of the know-how it has acquired over more than 40 years of crewed spaceflight missions.
PAM-6 will be the sixth private astronaut mission to the ISS, operated by Vast in partnership with NASA. It will be launching in the summer of 2027 at the earliest. Subject to review and approval by the ISS Multilateral Crew Operations Panel (MCOP), ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet will serve as Commander for this mission in partnership with NASA. The MCOP’s decisions are reached through a consensus among representatives from all five ISS partners: NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Assuming that Thomas Pesquet’s appointment is confirmed, he will be the first non-American ever to command a U.S. spacecraft.
The Haven-1 test flight will mark the first crewed mission to a commercial space station. Arnaud Prost is expected to serve as a flight test engineer, joining the select band of astronauts to have accomplished their first flight in a new spacecraft. The mission will therefore be devoted largely to technology demonstrations, offering the opportunity to build skills in qualifying crewed space systems.
Further details of crews and mission schedules will be unveiled at the International Space Summit initiated by President Emmanuel Macron, to be held on 9 and 10 September 2026 in Paris.
