European Astronaut Corps
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The European Astronaut Corps is the group of astronauts of ESA who are currently considered as active. There are currently twelve in number, all men. The European astronauts are based in the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. But, in practice, they are in various assignments both in Europe (at ESTEC, for instance) or elsewhere in the world, at NASA Johnson Space Center or Star City.
Contents |
[edit] Current members
There are twelve astronauts in the corps.
- Jean-François Clervoy (F)
- Frank De Winne (B)
- Pedro Duque (E)
- Reinhold Ewald (D)
- Léopold Eyharts (F)
- Christer Fuglesang (S)
- André Kuipers (NL)
- Paolo A. Nespoli (I)
- Claude Nicollier (CH)
- Thomas Reiter (D)
- Hans Schlegel (D)
- Roberto Vittori (I)
Only one current member of the corps, Nespoli, has not flown in space. He has already been assigned a Shuttle mission, STS-120, and should fly before the end of 2007.
Reiter is the member of the corps who has spent the most time in space, 350 days.
The youngest member of the corps is Roberto Vittori, born in 1964, while the oldest is Claude Nicollier, born in 1944. The corps currently includes no woman, being an all white males group. Only two women have been members of the corps. Marianne Merchez never flew, and Claudie Haigneré resigned after two flights to start a political career in France. The only minority participation is that Léopold Eyharts belongs to the Basque ethnic group in France.
[edit] Future of the European Astronaut Corps
According to French weekly Air & Cosmos, only seven astronauts (Reiter, Fuglesang, Schlegel, Nespoli, Eyharts, De Winne and Kuipers) remain available for immediate flight. The others are on temporary leave or assigned to other duties. Four more astronauts should therefore be recruited, according to the head of human spaceflight at ESA, after the launch of Columbus, in October 2007.
The funding by NASA of the International Space Station is scheduled to end in 2015. The role and activities of European astronauts beyond this date, and in particular their involvement in the Vision for Space Exploration, including missions to the Lunar outpost, is unclear.
[edit] Former members
Ulf Merbold was the first ESA astronaut. He flew on board STS-9 in 1983.
Other former members of the European Astronaut Corps are Wubbo Ockels, Marianne Merchez, Maurizio Cheli, Claudie Haigneré, Jean-Pierre Haigneré, Umberto Guidoni, Michel Tognini, Gerhard Thiele and Philippe Perrin.
 |
This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it. |
[edit] Shuttle missions
Astronauts from the European Astronaut Corps have participated to various missions before the ISS era, in particular in the frame of Spacelab, as Payload Specialists.
|
This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it. |
[edit] As Payload Specialists
- Merbold (D) - STS-9 / Spacelab
- Ockels (NL) - STS-61-A / Spacelab
- Merbold (D) - STS-42 / Spacelab
[edit] As Mission Specialists
- Nicollier (CH) - STS-46, STS-61, STS-75, STS-103
- Cheli (I) - STS-75
- Clervoy (F) - STS-66, STS-84, STS-103
- Thiele (D) - STS-99
- Duque (E) - STS-95
[edit] Mir visits
Astronauts from the European astronaut Corps have also flown to Mir both on board Soyuz vehicles or on board the Space Shuttle.
- Ulf Merbold - Euromir 94 - Soyuz TM-20 - 03.10. - 04.11.1994
- Thomas Reiter - Euromir 95 - Soyuz TM-22 - 03.09.1995 - 29.02.1996
- Jean-François Clervoy - STS-84
|
This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it. |
[edit] ISS visits
ESA astronauts to have visited the ISS are:
- Guidoni (I), ESA, 9th ISS flight (6A) Raffaello MPLM, STS-100/ISS, 2001-04-19 – 2001-05-01
- Haigneré (F), CNES Andromède, Soyuz/ISS, 2001-10-21 – 2001-10-31
- Vittori (I), ASI Marco Polo, Soyuz/ISS, 2002-04-25 – 2002-05-05
- Perrin (F), NASA/CNES, ISS assembly flight UF-2, STS-111/ISS, 2002-06-05 – 2002-06-19 (Remark: was a CNES, not an ESA astronaut at the time of his mission)
- De Winne (B), ESA, Odissea, Soyuz/ISS, 2002-10-30 – 2002-11-10
- Duque (E), ESA, Cervantes, Soyuz/ISS, 2003-10-18 – 2003-10-28
- Kuipers (NL), ESA, DELTA Mission, 8S/ISS, 2004-04-19 – 2004-04-30
- Vittori (I), ASI Eneide, Soyuz/ISS, 2005-04-15 – 2005-04-25
- Reiter (D), ESA Astrolab, ISS assembly flight ULF 1.1, STS-121/ISS, 2006-07-06 – 2006-12-22
- Fuglesang, ESA Celsius, ISS assembly flight 12A.1, STS-116/ISS, 2006-12-10 – 2006-12-22
[edit] Upcoming missions
- STS-120 - Paolo Nespoli
- STS-122 - Hans Schlegel
- STS-122 - Expedition 16 - Léopold Eyharts
Frank De Winne is the back-up for Léopold Eyharts for STS-122, while André Kuipers is back-up for STS-128.
