“Tears follow weightlessness now”: French astronaut Sophie Adenot delivers moving speech after returning to dry land

Excited and tired. Frenchwoman Sophie Adenot spoke her first words in public on Saturday October 10 in Cologne (Germany), the day after she landed off the coast of California. “I crossed the entire spectrum of human emotions,” she declared on the airport tarmac, shortly after landing in Europe. “I was in orbit around the Earth and now I find myself with my feet on Earth,” she smiled, while pointing out that it was still difficult for her to stand upright.

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A longer rest period had been granted to her in Houston, said the European Space Agency (ESA), so that she could begin “the last and also the longest stage of her return journey to Europe”. “I was not able to make the transatlantic flight before being stabilized,” commented Sophie Adenot, supported by two ESA doctors, David Kim and Bimba Hoyer.

She spoke of a “mission full of joy”, without hiding more difficult moments. The Frenchwoman's speech was interrupted several times by tears of emotion. “Tears follow weightlessness now, I wasn’t used to it,” she joked. “I went into space full of dreams, and I came back full of gratitude,” she added, welcoming “this sense of unity between people who decided to be united.” 400 km from Earth, there are “no divisions, no borders” and we see “just one precious planet that we all share”.

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Sophie Adenot had landed the day before off the coast of California, after more than 27 hours of travel aboard the Dragon capsule. The last minutes of the flight offered the Frenchwoman, the two Americans Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway and the Russian Andreï Fediaïev ultimate thrills, with a crossing of the atmosphere at full speed then their slowing down by powerful parachutes, all with a cut in communications.