Astronaut Raphaël Liégeois to visit ISS by the end of 2026, ESA says

Belgian astronaut Raphaël Liégeois will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in the second half of 2026, the European Space Agency (ESA) has confirmed.

The ESA announced last May that Liégeois had been selected for a mission to the ISS, with a planned departure in September 2026. While the agency is still aiming for the end of next year, the timing of the flight could change, it said at a press conference on Thursday.

Liégeois was the second of a class of five to receive their ESA astronaut certification to go into space last year. French astronaut Sophie Adenot will be the first of them to go to the ISS, provisionally in the spring of 2026. Liégeois will replace her. Both astronauts are currently being prepared for their missions, mainly in Houston, Texas.

Liégeois will be the third Belgian astronaut in space, after Dirk Frimout and Frank De Winne.

European rockets

During the press conference, ESA director general Josef Aschbacher also declared that Europe's "rocket launch crisis" is over, now that the new Vega-C and Ariane 6 launchers are finally operational.

"Europe has regained its independent access to space," Aschbacher said, "and we can launch our missions and satellites with our own rockets."

Ariane 6 is scheduled for five flights in 2025, with the first scheduled for February. Four launches are planned for Vega-C.

More funding

ESA is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Belgium is the sixth largest contributor to the space agency. The country is expected to contribute 284.7 million euros to ESA's 5 billion euro operating budget in 2025, around 5.6 per cent of the agency's total budget.

Aschbacher called for more money from member states. "It is clear that Europe needs to invest more in space" because of its "crucial and strategic importance", he said. The issue will be discussed at an ESA ministerial summit in Germany at the end of November.

^{© BELGA PHOTO JASPER JACOBS}