In an interview with Madame Figaro Thursday December 28, 2023, Thomas Pesquet shared details about his relationship with his partner Anne Mottet, with whom he has been in a relationship for several years. A pressure engineer with a degree from the National Polytechnic Institute, this former agroeconomist currently holds the position of head of livestock policies at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome. A career that adds a dimension of geographic distance to their relationship already tested by space travel. Thomas Pesquet, who will perhaps become the first French astronaut to go to the Moon, highlighted the challenges his profession poses on their relationship. “To let your partner go into space, I think you have to be strong. In that, Anne has a strength of character that far exceeds mine”he told our colleagues.
Thomas Pesquet: “I would have been incapable of it”
Near Madame FigaroThomas Pesquet spoke of the necessary sacrifices and family difficulties linked to a career where absence and unpredictability are commonplace. “Being an astronaut means that your family unit manages to function entirely without us”, explained the astronaut, who does not want to have children. He shares family challenges and the risk that the other partner ends up feeling less indispensable in the astronaut’s life. After living 6 months in the International Space Station, his companion warned him: “I did it once, and it’s over. The next time you go into space, I won’t be here.” Which ultimately didn’t happen. Despite these challenges, Thomas Pesquet pays tribute to his partner for her resilience and her ability to juggle her career. “Anne managed not only to do everything for her career, but also do everything to preserve our core, keep the link between me, my family and my friends. Honestly, I couldn’t have done it.”he admitted.
For Thomas Pesquet, the book he wrote, My life without gravity (ed. Flamarrion) is not only a narration of his spatial experiences, but also a way of putting the heroes back where they deserve to be. This great lover of space, who is in a civil partnership and not married to his partner Anne, thus suggests that true heroism sometimes resides in the personal choices and sacrifices made for the good of the space mission and earthly love.