European Astronaut Corps
The European Astronaut Corps is the group of astronauts of ESA who are currently considered as active. They are twelve, all men. The European astronauts are based in the European Astronauts Center in Cologne, Germany. But indeed, practically, they are all in various assignments in Europe (at ESTEC, for instance) or in the world, at NASA Johnson Space Center or Star City.
List of 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 two members of the corps, Fuglesang and Nespoli, have not flown in space yet. They have both already been assigned a Shuttle mission and should both fly before the end of 2007.
Thomas Reiter is currently in space on board the ISS. His back-up was Léopold Eyharts, who should therefore fly soon as well as an ISS expedition crew.
The youngest member of the corps is Roberto Vittori, born in 1964, while the oldest is Claude Nicollier, born in 1944.
Former members
Former members of the European Astronaut Corps include Ulf Merbold, Wubbo Ockels, Marianne Merchez, Maurizio Cheli, Claudie Haigneré, Jean-Pierre Haigneré, Umberto Guidoni, Michel Tognini, Gerhard Thiele and Philippe Perrin who have retired.
Ulf Merbold was the first ESA astronaut, who flew on board STS-9 in 1983.
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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.
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As Payload Specialists
- Merbold (D) - STS-9 / Spacelab
- Ockels (NL) - STS-61-A / Spacelab
- Merbold (D) - STS-42 / Spacelab
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
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
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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