ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet started his six-month Proxima mission on the International Space Station on 19 November 2016 when he arrived on the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft with NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and commander Oleg Novitsky.

Just four days later he gave his first press conference from European space laboratory Columbus to press at ESA’s astronaut centre in Cologne, Germany.

Thomas answered questions about the launch, life in space, the experiments he has run so far and how he is talking with friends and family.

Follow Thomas throughout his mission via thomaspesquet.esa.int