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Jean-Jacques Favier is dead, an announcement made by his family this Friday, March 24. The French astronaut was 74 years old and had carried out a mission in space aboard NASA’s Columbia shuttle in 1996.
On June 20, 1996, the engines of the Columbia shuttle ignited at Cape Canaveral, Jean-Jacques Favier was on board. He is the sixth French astronaut to begin a sixteen-day mission in space. This mission, he will have waited for it all his life. When he was 12, his parents gave him a copy of Jules Verne’s book, Around the world in 80 daysinside a small note: “ You will be part of the generation that will do it in 80 minutes ».
He will therefore have achieved this objective on board the shuttle Columbia, but he had to persevere to achieve it. A physicist by training, in 1985 he joined the group of astronauts at the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) as an experimental astronaut, when he was a research engineer at the Atomic Energy Commission ( ECA). The French space agency is indeed opening the selection to non-pilots for the first time.
But the opportunity for a mission did not arise and in 1992, Jean-Jacques Favier left France for the United States. He then applied directly to NASA, a profitable choice since the American space agency would fly him four years later. 256 orbits around the Earth used to carry out a large number of experiments. In total, he spent 16 days, 21 hours and 48 minutes in orbit, from June 20 to July 7, 1996. That is 14 years after Jean-Loup Chrétien, the first Frenchman to have flown into space, aboard a spacecraft Russian Soyuz.
More than thirty experiments during its mission in space
Jean-Jacques Favier thus becomes “ the first French scientist to have stayed in space”, specifies the CNES, paying tribute to his “exemplary career ». « It will leave its mark on future generations and inspire many of us. “, adds the CEO of CNES, Philippe Baptiste, in the press release.
During his mission, Jean-Jacques Favier was responsible for more than thirty physics experiments in microgravity. On his return, he wishes to transmit: he has thus intervened a hundred times in schools with the youngest. He is also involved in research, in particular by collaborating on a CNES project to prepare a future lunar and/or Martian base.
We learned with sadness of the disappearance of Jean-Jacques Favier, the sixth French astronaut to have gone into space.
We salute his exemplary career which will leave a lasting mark on the world of astronautics.????????????
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— CNES (@CNES) March 24, 2023
(and with AFP)