European Astronauts

In 1998, the European Astronaut Centre was established in Germany to prepare an ESA astronaut corps of experts in the fields of science, technology and medicine.

Since 2001 European astronauts have been flying to the ISS to carry out scientific and technological research, delivering insights that cannot be achieved on Earth. Thomas Reiter was the first ESA astronaut to join the ISS crew as a permanent member with a long-duration mission of 6 months in 2006. European astronauts have also performed essential extra-vehicular activity - spacewalks - to assemble key elements of the ISS, including the solar arrays for the permanent electricity system during Christer Fuglesang’s mission.

Hans Schlegel and Léopold Eyharts will fly on STS-122, to deliver the Columbus laboratory, one of Europe's major contributions to the ISS. Léopold will spend 2 months onboard the station to prepare Columbus for operational use.