First European commander of the International Space Station

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First European commander of the International Space Station – media opportunity

Frank De Winne takes over as ISS Commander on Sunday

6 October 2009

ESA PR 24-2009. ESA astronaut Frank De Winne will become the first European commander of the International Space Station this weekend, after the current commander Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka has left the ISS.

Padalka’s Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled to undock this Sunday night from the orbital outpost. De Winne is the first non-American and non-Russian to take on this role. A symbolic change-of-command ceremony will be held in advance onboard the ISS this Friday.

On 13 October, the European Space Agency will be organising an inflight call opportunity for the media to talk to the newly-appointed European ISS Commander at the Columbus Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich, Germany.

Media registration starts at 14:30. The programme will feature presentations by ESA Director of Human Spaceflight Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Operations & Infrastructure Gaele Winters and the Chairman of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Johann-Dietrich Wörner.

Programme

14.30 Registration

15.00 Presentations by representatives of ESA and DLR

16.00 Inflight call

16.20 Question & answer session

17.00 End

Media who wish to participate to the inflight call opportunity at the ESA Columbus Control Centre at DLR/GSOC Oberpfaffenhofen are kindly requested to send the reply form linked on the right to:

ESA/ESOC
Melanie Zander
melanie.zander@esa.int
Tel: +49 6151 902 516
Fax: +49 6151 902 961

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