European Astronaut Corps

History

Current members

As of 2024, there are eleven active members of the European Astronaut Corps. Five were selected in 2009, one was selected in 2015, and the remaining five selected in 2022.

Missions in italics are scheduled and subject to change.

All of the current members of the corps, other than the 2022 ESA Group, have flown to space and have visited the ISS. French astronaut Thomas Pesquet is the member of the corps who has accumulated the most time in space with 396 days, 11 hours, and 34 minutes. He is the record holder for all the European astronauts in history. The corps currently includes Samantha Cristoforetti, who formerly held the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman.

2009 Group

On 3 April 2008, ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain announced that recruiting for a new class of European astronauts will start in the near future. The selection program for 4 new astronauts was launched on 19 May 2008 with applications due by 16 June 2008 so that final selection would be due spring 2009. Almost 10,000 people registered as astronaut candidates as of 18 June 2008. 8,413 fulfilled the initial application criteria. From these 918 were chosen to take part in the first stage of psychological testing which led to 192 candidates on 24 September 2008. After two stage psychological tests 80 candidates continued on to medical evaluation in January–February 2009. 40 or so candidates head to formal interviews to select four new members to European Astronaut Corps.

2022 Group

Recruitment for the 2022 ESA Astronaut Group took place over 2021–22 and added five "career" astronauts as well as for the first time a "reserve pool" of 11 astronaut candidates, and also a person with a physical disability through the "parastronaut feasibility project".

In June 2023, Marcus Wandt, originally a reserve astronaut, was selected for Axiom Space mission and transitioned to "project" astronaut. This later was set in place for Polish reserve astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski.

The funding by NASA and Russia of the International Space Station is currently planned to end in 2030. Thanks to their involvement with NASA's Orion programme, ESA will receive three flight opportunities for European astronauts to the Lunar Gateway.

Former members

There are 18 former members of the ESA astronaut corps.

Some ESA astronauts were selected by other European agencies and then enrolled into the European Astronaut Corps in 1998.

Heads of the EAC

The following people (all retired or active duty astronauts) have served as Head of the European Astronaut Corps.

European astronauts outside of ESA

Interkosmos

Ten Europeans became astronauts within the Soviet Union's Interkosmos program, which allowed citizens of allied nations to fly missions to the Salyut 6, Salyut 7 and Mir space station.

• Bulgaria Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandrov
• France Jean-Loup Chrétien
• Hungary Bertalan Farkas
• Poland Mirosław Hermaszewski
• Bulgaria Georgi Ivanov
• East Germany Sigmund Jähn
• Romania Dumitru Prunariu
• Czechoslovakia Vladimír Remek
• United Kingdom Helen Sharman
• Austria Franz Viehböck

Space Shuttle

NASA trained and flew astronauts from allied nations on the Space Shuttle, especially as payload specialists for scientific missions such as Spacelab. Prior to the foundation of the ESA astronaut corps, both the French CNES and the German DLR had selected their own rosters of astronauts, notably in preparation for the introduction of the ISS. The following people flew on various Shuttle missions.

• France Patrick Baudry
• France Jean-Jacques Favier
• Belgium Dirk Frimout
• Germany Reinhard Furrer
• Ukraine Leonid Kadeniuk
• Italy Franco Malerba
• Germany Ulrich Walter

Russian Mir missions

The following people flew on missions to Mir under agreements between their nations and Russia.

• Slovakia Ivan Bella
• Germany Klaus-Dietrich Flade

Private spaceflight

Hungary developed their own independent Astronaut Program, HUNOR or the Hungarian to Orbit program, to select and train a Hungarian astronaut (Tibor Kapu), and backup (Gyula Cserényi), for the private Axiom Mission 4. As such, despite being astronauts of the Hungarian Space Office, neither are members of the European Astronaut Corps.

• Hungary Tibor Kapu

Space Shuttle missions

Astronauts from the European Astronaut Corps participated in several NASA Space Shuttle missions before the ISS era, in particular as Spacelab payload specialists. NASA considered the full-time ESA astronauts as payload specialists, but offered some the opportunity to train with its own astronauts and become NASA mission specialists. (This list excludes missions to Mir or the ISS)

As Payload Specialists

• Ulf Merbold – STS-9 (Spacelab), STS-42 (Spacelab)
• Reinhard Furrer – STS-61-A (Spacelab-D1 Mission)
• Wubbo Ockels – STS-61-A (Spacelab-D1 Mission)
• Hans Schlegel – STS-55 (Spacelab-D2 Mission)
• Ulrich Walter – STS-55 (Spacelab-D2 Mission)

As Mission Specialists

• Claude Nicollier – STS-46, STS-61 (Hubble Space Telescope) STS-75, STS-103 (Hubble)
• Maurizio Cheli – STS-75
• Jean-François Clervoy – STS-66, STS-84 (Mir), STS-103 (Hubble)
• Gerhard Thiele – STS-99
• Pedro Duque – STS-95

Missions to the Mir space stations

Astronauts from Europe have flown to Mir both on board Soyuz vehicles (as part of the Euromir programme) or on board the Space Shuttle.

• Jean-Loup Chrétien – Aragatz (1988) France
• Helen Sharman – Project Juno (1991) UK
• Franz Viehböck – Austromir '91 (1991) Austria
• Klaus-Dietrich Flade – Mir '92 (1992) Germany
• Michel Tognini – Antarès (1992) France
• Jean-Pierre Haigneré – Altair (1993) France
• Ulf Merbold – Euromir '94 (1994) Germany
• Thomas Reiter – Euromir '95 (1995) Germany
• Claudie Haigneré – Cassiopée (1996) France
• Reinhold Ewald – Mir '97 (1997) Germany
• Jean-François Clervoy – STS-84 (1997) France
• Jean-Loup Chrétien – STS-86 (1997) France
• Léopold Eyharts – Pégase (1998) France
• Jean-Pierre Haigneré – Perseus (1999) France
• Ivan Bella – Stefanik (1999) Slovakia

Missions to the International Space Station

European astronauts to have visited the ISS are:

Future missions to the International Space Station

Future European astronauts to the ISS are:

References

References

1. (3 April 2008). "Europe's new cargo freighter safely docks to space station". Spaceflight Now.
2. (24 September 2008). "Closing in on new astronauts". [[ESA]].
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5. (15 June 2023). "N° 28–2023: ESA proposes Marcus Wandt from Sweden to fly on a future Axiom space mission".
6. "Sophie Adenot".
7. "Pablo Álvarez Fernández".
8. "Rosemary Coogan".
9. "Raphaël Liégeois".
10. "Marco Alain Sieber".
11. "John McFall".
12. "Sławosz Uznański".
13. "Marcus Wandt".
14. "Meganne Christian".
15. "Anthea Comellini".
16. "Sara García Alonso".
17. "Andrea Patassa".
18. "Carmen Possnig".
19. "Arnaud Prost".
20. "Amelie Schoenenwald".
21. "Aleš Svoboda".
22. "Nicola Winter".
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26. "Michel Tognini". [[ESA]].
27. "Frank de Winne". [[ESA]].
28. (11 June 2025). "Andreas Mogensen leads European astronaut corps". [[Ritzau News]].
29. (2019). "Come Fly with Us: NASA's Payload Specialist Program". University of Nebraska Press.
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34. (30 July 2015). "Third spaceflight for astronaut Paolo Nespoli". [[ESA]].
35. (2022-08-18). "Introducing Huginn". ESA.
36. (2023-06-16). "Muninn Mission Patch and Name". ESA.
37. (2023-09-12). "Axiom Space Announces Astronauts for Third Mission to ISS".
38. (2 December 2024). "IGNIS – pierwsza polska misja na Międzynarodową Stację Kosmiczną - POLSA - Polska Agencja Kosmiczna".
39. (2024-08-05). "Axiom Mission 4 to ISS will include India, Poland, Hungary".
40. Parsonson, Andrew. (2025-04-28). "Czechia Selects Experiments for Private Astronaut Mission to the ISS".
41. "První rok České cesty do vesmíru – Kosmonautix.cz".