How tall is Thomas Pesquet?

The question comes up often, and the honest answer is that no official document provides it. Space agencies publish detailed biographies of their astronauts, but body measurements belong to medical records, protected like those of any employee. The figures circulating online are therefore unverifiable.

The biography published by the European Space Agency covers the essentials of a career: born in Rouen in 1978, engineering training, time at CNES, a career as an Airbus A320 airline pilot, selection in the European astronaut class of 2009, then the Proxima and Alpha missions to the International Space Station. Height, weight and measurements do not appear there, and this is not an oversight.

Agencies set anthropometric limits for their candidates: standing height, sitting height, leg length, weight. These stem directly from the hardware, not from a physical ideal: molded spacecraft seats, spacesuit bulk, clearance in cockpits, safety margins at landing. A candidate outside these bounds is turned down because no flight equipment would fit them.

In microgravity, the spine relaxes and the intervertebral discs reinflate: astronauts temporarily grow taller during their stay, then return to their original height after landing. This elongation is factored into the design of suits and seats, and is often accompanied by back pain during the first days of flight.