Jean Loup Chrétien - The Making of a Hero

"526 seconds can change a life... When Soyouz extricated itself from the atmosphere, on June 24th, 1982, I vibrated as the cabin sending me to the sky. Through the porthole, the Earth is black as petroleum. The fluorescent dawn gets up in a fine bluish fringe. The ecstasy..."

In June 24th, 1982, Baïkonou, Jean-Loup Chrétien describes his first flight in the space. First French astronaut - and European! - he worked alternatively with the Russians and the Americans, during cold war. Trained "the hard way" in Russia, he knots an indestructible friendship with his colleagues. In the United States, he is liked as no other Frenchman.

His three spatial missions are mythical. "You put him in a washing machine for hours, and when he goes out, he is in top form". That is what great specialists say about him. By his robustness, his adventure and the myth he embodies, this man really is a hero. Today retired from the aviation, he accepts to open us the book of his life teeming with anecdotes and with unique episodes.