This transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.

Excellencies Heads of state. Distinguished guests.

Good morning And on behalf of the Republic of France and the Federal Republic of Germany. I am following President Macron's opening speech.

I am delighted and deeply honored to be your master of ceremonies this morning.

My name is Professor Anu Oja and to start proceedings off,

I would like to give a warm welcome and can we please invite the Director General of the European Space Agency,

Doctor Josef Aschbacher onto the stage. Joseph, the floor is yours. Thank you so much, thank you.

Thank you, Heads of Government, I am here to introduce a very special person in a couple of minutes,

and the timing has to be very accurate because we get a slot to look into space and to talk to our astronaut,

Sophie Dupin, ESA astronaut of French nationality to whom we will speak in a minute. Has to be precise.

I also have the honor to give a very few minutes update of where we stand in Europe,

and I really was enjoying the speech of you, Mr.

President, inspiring the world on the importance of space and space is so crucial for everyone and what is doing,

and this is exactly what I like the general of the European Space Agency. Every single day and every single minute.

You have given us a challenge that Europe should step up and Europe should increase its strategic autonomy,

its capacity, and make sure that Europe has what it needs in space.

Let me update you very briefly until I wait for the in-flight call to start on what our ministers have discussed.

Yesterday evening at the European session,

and I would like to thank France for inviting the ministers, the Commissioner, Mr.

Kouvelis was with us discussing some of the priorities we have, and myself, of course, as head of the European Space Agency.

What we have addressed two points in particular space transportation and exploration,

and we got a very clear, very resounding.

Signal or message from the politicians and Olof you are here in the room that Europe has to be stronger, has to step up and to build up its capacity not to isolate but to be a good partner for our international partners in the United States,

in Japan, in Canada, in the UAE, in India, in many, many other countries,

and this is exactly what The ministers and the politicians have asked me to prepare in order to make sure that Europe is increasing its capacity.

We are discussing exploration as a priority, exploration meaning low Earth orbit, the moon, Mars in particular.

We are having activities, and the President mentioned Argonaut, Moonlight, and a number of other activities,

and they are fantastic, but we really want to increase our capacity. One point of discussion. Human spaceflight. We have astronauts. We will see Sophie De in a minute. We have fantastic astronauts.

Yesterday we witnessed the astronaut roundtable chaired and moderated by Thomas Brose, and they are doing incredible work which is Important for daily life down on earth,

research, technology development on medicine, material sciences, biology, and many other domains.

This work is so fundamental and therefore we really discuss in Europe should we have our own capacity to also launch the astronauts with European rockets on a European crew vehicle,

with the European launch support system, the operations, the science, the crew, recovery and everything that is needed.

And this is exactly the debate we have.

I to my ministers and decision makers what we should be doing, but I have been asked to prepare decisions for December,

where we are planning a meeting of the intermediate ministerial meeting in Rome in order to do that.

I am getting the signal that we are connected, that we are connected to Houston, and let's wait for the screen to come on,

and I would like to invite the President of the Republic of France, Mr.

Macron, please to join me on stage for the call.

So we are waiting for the connection with Houston.

Houston will connect to the space station, and here we are. Bon Josephie Good morning, Sophie. Good morning President.

I just have to turn around the right way.

Now here at the Grand Pala in Paris, and we have the heads of state, heads of government, we have the president of the European Commission,

and you have your colleagues, astronauts and scientists who are here and they can see you and hear you. Thank you.

I would have loved to be part of this meeting you have on space.

But I'm up here in space instead of being down there with you.

The interpreter apologizes, but the quality of the sound is very poor.

We'll be continuing the work, but there are already some major projects that have been started and missions completed to.

There are a number of colleagues who will be able to go into space in the next few months, which is wonderful news.

And the major statements made on geopolitical issues, scientific commitments, industrial commitments,

and new partnerships between Europeans and other powers in space.

And so there are some 50 commitments for billions of euros.

Could you tell us what's happening with you, Sophie, not just at the moment,

what are the more recent work projects you've been doing up there? We've been working hard.

And France and Europe are in a good position for exploration.

We want to have all the support from France and French people.

Once again, the interpreter apologizes, but the sound quality is very poor. Dinner, me. Been put. The How about routine living up there?

Is it not too hard living in space? It's not too bad. Everything's surprising.

Everything is so different from life on Earth.

You can walk around with your feet in the air and your head facing the other way.

And whether it's gymnastics or work, it's all very different and it's great fun.

I love it and I love the observation work and we work hard with the teams in all corners of the world. I'm as happy as can be. What are the next stages?

Well, the next major stage will be coming back to Earth, and we're preparing for that.

It's as if we're preparing a mission in its own right.

We have to be ready to come back.

And then we'll have to learn to live with gravity again.

It will take a bit of a while to get used to it and then there'll be debriefing and scientific work and medical examinations and so on to see how the body has been affected and how it recovers.

And of course it would be nice to go back to Earth and see trees and feel the wind again.

But I do really enjoy life up here.

I just enjoy each day, and it will be nice to come back to Earth and be like a child discovering life will live again.

And And In We don't know exactly what date it will be,

but it will be wonderful to be able to greet you in person when I'm back with my feet on the earth. Thank you very much, Sophie. Thank you for being here with us. And thank you For the The invitation.

I can remember when Thomas Leszke came back after his time at the space station,

what it was like and be very pleased to see you back on terra firma and to welcome you home.

But the French people and Europeans in general have been delighted to follow your adventure,

and you have fostered many dreams,

and we can see just how important space is.

It's a wonderful dream and it inspires many young people.

And I would like to say how grateful we are for what you are doing. I have great admiration for you.

And I hope that many future astronauts and scientific researchers become involved and as I said in my speech,

I hope that a large number of young women will do this.

I ended up here because I was inspired by the previous generations of astronauts,

and I hope that I'll be able to do it for the next generation.

And what I would like to say to the younger generation today is that there's no straight line leading to a career.

You have to work, but you also have to Accept failure and even if you don't keep going the way you planned,

you have to have big dreams and of course we do that individually and we do it for our country,

but you also have to start off on a small scale because an extraordinary dream starts with lots of little steps. Thank you very much for this inspiration.

When I was first elected president, she was in the army and she was a helicopter pilot and I was lucky enough to have her as a pilot in the helicopter when I was being transported by helicopter and she went through all the different career paths and she changed and so it's not necessarily a straight line,

it all depends on the talent, the commitment and the work done. They were wonderful moments.

What a great memory I have of those helicopter flights.

We used to travel everywhere with your program.

It's one of my greatest memories and I'm delighted that you mentioned it. Thank you very much, President.

Well, Sophie, we have to leave you and I'll be giving the floor to the President of the European Commission.

Do you have a last message for everyone before we leave you?

This mission for me was a dream for exploring and it was a great human experience showing a unique view of the planet and also the most extraordinary human contact that I've had in the course of the mission here. These are very deep contacts and relationships.

It's a very human experience and that's what I'd like to share when I get back.

And I'd be delighted to share it with all the human contacts that we can have.

And I look forward to seeing you soon.

Thank you very much and enjoy the rest of your mission and thank you for speaking to this first space summit.

And we look forward to having you back with us on Earth.

Thank you, Thank you, thank you one and all.

It was an honor to speak to you and a great source of joy too.

Thank you, thank you to you, Sophie, and to all your colleagues. Mr.

President, Joseph, Sophie,

thank you so much for that truly inspirational linkage with humanity's International orbiting Laboratory on orbit.