Thomas Pesquet's return to Earth after 6 months in space

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ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Russian Soyuz commander Oleg Novitskiy will return to Earth on Friday, 2 June, concluding their six-month stay on the International Space Station. After a three-hour journey in their Soyuz spacecraft, they will land in the Kazakh steppe at approximately 14:09 GMT (16:09 CEST). Media will have the opportunity to witness the landing live from the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) together with the astronaut's colleagues and friends. On this occasion, media are invited to interview ESA experts, who can provide more information about his training, his mission and his return to Earth.

A few hours after landing, Thomas will continue his journey to EAC, the home base of all ESA astronauts, in Cologne, Germany. Thomas will be the ninth ESA astronaut to complete a long-duration mission in space and he will be the fourth after Alexander Gerst, Andreas Mogensen and Tim Peake to fly directly back to Cologne where he is expected to land at approximately 02:00 GMT (04:00 CEST) on Saturday, 3 June. There is a photo opportunity upon the arrival of Thomas Pesquet on the tarmac.

Thomas will spend his first night back on Earth at the Envihab facility of the DLR German Aerospace Center, where ESA's medical team will monitor how he readapts to gravity after months in weightlessness and scientists will gather to continue the science programme, collecting data on Thomas' rehabilitation phase.

The first press conference with Thomas Pesquet is scheduled to take place at EAC on Tuesday, 6 June, around 08:30 GMT (10:30 CEST). This will be a 45-minute Q&A session. For operational reasons, there will be no one-to-one interviews with Thomas.

Accreditation for access to EAC on 2 June and 6 June, as well as for access to the airport on 3 June, will be organised by ESA.