Hello,
Saturday, I went to the Cinquantenaire's Autoworld, a museum where for this coming week, the Earth and Space Week is taking place.
The entry is free; it's about what the ESA does when studying our planet from space.
There was also a corner for exploration (Mars and Titan).
I saw 8 ESA astronauts: Frank De Winne, Gerard Thiele, Reinhold Ewald, Paolo Nespoli, Andre Kuipers, Pedro Duque, Jean-François Clervoy and Christer Fuglesang.
I chatted with Gerard, Pedro and Christer, shook hands with Andre and Jean-François.
Of course children had a priority.
Christer told me he was going to perform spacewalks. His shuttle flight will return Reiter back from the ISS and take a US astronaut to the station for a long duration flight. Reiter could spend 7 months aboard ISS. I told Christer that Claude Nicollier also had to wait a long time but his missions were worth waiting for, according to him so a spacewalk for a first mission is worth all those years on the ground.
Gerard told me there was a plan to land astronauts on the Moon with a open lander (not pressurized), but that was one of the projects.
Pedro told me the main reason it's so difficult (if not impossible) to see stars from the station is mainly because of the lights inside the station.
When children are told to ask questions, it's mostly about subjects astronauts are not familiar with: mainly astronomy.
Well, I'm told there are astronauts who do enjoy it, what is called the "barrel".

I haven't been very successful with the pictures (lots of movement) and hope other friends I've met have better ones.

It was a great day. And I hope it's not over.

Raoul