导读
8月8日晚，在东京奥运会的闭幕式上，下一届奥运会的东道主法国带来了精美浪漫的8分钟展示节目。视频中，一位身处空间站的宇航员用手中的萨克斯吹响了《马赛曲》的最后一章节。观众直呼：“法国人太会搞浪漫了！”
这位法国航天员托马斯·佩斯凯也曾于6月18日发布一条推特欢迎中国航天员。他说：“随着中国将3名航天员送到他们的空间站，本周太空的人口数量增加了43%。所有的太空飞行都是一项了不起的成就，我能想象到他们三人享受从地球轨道上欣赏他们的首都北京以及天津时的样子。”
Performing your country's national anthem at the closing ceremony is a distinguished honor. But for France's Thomas Pesquet, it was even more special.On August 8, the Tokyo Olympics came to an end. Paris, France will host the next Summer Olympics, and they displayed a wonderful 8-minute showcase at the closing ceremony. Pesquet, an astronaut currently in outer space, helped perform the song on his saxophone from the International Space Station as a symbol of the Olympics' universality.Born on Feb 26, 1978 in Rouen, Thomas Pesquet is the tenth astronaut to set foot in space and is one of the best-known French astronauts today. Pesquet was selected by ESA as a candidate in May 2009, and he successfully completed his basic training in November 2010. In addition to gaining an education and skills for space, Pesquet can also speak in six languages: French, English, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, and German.While he continued his work as a pilot, he did not forget to practice playing the saxophone in his spare time.All of his efforts have been rewarded. After seven years of training, Pesquet finally became part of Expedition 50 and Expedition 51 as a flight engineer from November 2016 to June 2017. Thomas was planning to take his beloved saxophone into space with him. Unexpectedly, on the day of the launch, he was informed that each astronaut can only carry a maximum of 1.5 kilograms of luggage, while his alto saxophone weighed 2.4 kilograms. He had no choice but to leave it on Earth. With a book written by French author Antoine de Saiot-Exupery, Thomas started his exploration of the universe.Surprisingly, his family prepared a special gift for him. On his birthday, Feb 27, Thomas found his saxophone in the supply compartment delivered by NASA. What a surprise! Floating by the window of the space station, Thomas played his saxophone with his eyes staring at the Earth. This scene was recorded in the documentary 16 levers de soleil, which also became the poster for the documentary.Now, this scene is represented in the video Paris 2024.Along with the melody of the French national anthem La Marseillaise, French landmarks such as the Stade de France, Notre Dame de Paris and the Louvre appeared one by one.Then the scene turned to space with an astronaut inside the space station. With a saxophone in his hands, he played the last section of La Marseillaise.In July last year, Pesquet was selected by SpaceX again. He went for a second mission to space. Pesquet returned in April 2021 on board the SpaceX Crew Dragon for a second six-month stay on the International Space Station. In his free time, he often shares photos of Earth taken from space with netizens.The ISS crew reportedly took part in two and half hours of daily exercises in the shuttle to maintain their fitness levels. As the Olympic Games have been held at a hectic pace in Tokyo, astronauts aboard the ISS have created their own brand of "Space Olympics". The crew members came up with new original ideas for the games, such as "very long jumps" and "no-hand ball", "weightless sharpshooting", and "synchronized space swimming" as they put mini flags of the participating countries atop the ISS lab.Before the closing ceremony, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide even unfurled a small flag with the Olympic rings and handed it over to Pesquet in the ISS.The Olympic spirit is very much alive at the ISS with the advent of the cosmic games. Pesquet said, "The very first Space Olympics, for crew cohesion, we put together a friendly competition between the Soyuz team and the Crew Dragon team; with sports specific to space, mind you." The audience was deeply moved and said:"Watching the Olympic closing ceremonies, I was so touched by the rendering of La Marseillaise, ending with a French astronaut playing the final notes on a saxophone from the ISS. Think how much we could accomplish if we didn't have to fight against our worst political impulses.""I am 100000% cool with the Olympics showing a saxophone being played while floating in space.""It's official. Saxophone is the sexiest musical instrument in the galaxy. Haha…"
Previously on June 18, Thomas Pesquet wrote on his Twitter account that humankind's presence in outer space has tremendously increased, thanks to the deployment of three Chinese astronauts to China's space station."The population of humans in space grew by 43 percent this week, with China launching three astronauts to their space station. All spaceflight is an incredible achievement. I imagine the trio enjoying the view of their capital city Beijing and Tianjin from Earth's orbit."
编辑：商桢
实习生：周迎桢
来源：Wionews, NBCboston, China Daily
Click here for audio and translation of the story