N° 11–1995: ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter selected for flight on EUROMIR 95
17 March 1995
ESA's Director General, Mr. Jean-Marie Luton, has announced today during a press conference at ESA/EAC (European Astronauts Centre) in Cologne, the selection of Thomas Reiter as member of Crew 1 and Christer Fuglesang as member of Crew 2 for the EUROMIR 95 mission. Crew 1 is the crew that is scheduled to actually fly, while Crew 2 is the stand-by crew and would fly in case any of the members of Crew 1 becomes unsuitable for the mission.
Both Thomas Reiter, from Germany, and Christer Fuglesang, from Sweden, have followed intensive training at ESA/EAC and at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Centre (TsPK) in Star City, near Moscow, to prepare for this 135 day long mission together with their Russian cosmonauts colleagues. Both crews will continue to follow exactly the same training until just a few days before the launch.
EUROMIR 95 is the second ESA mission to space station Mir with an ESA astronaut on board in the framework of the "Columbus precursor flights" to prepare for the International Space Station. It follows EUROMIR 94 (3 October- 4 November 1994) with ESA astronaut Ulf Merbold and 28 European experiments.
The launch of EUROMIR 95 is scheduled for 22 August 1995 and will carry 41 European experiments of scientists from various ESA member states. This mission will be the longest mission ever flown by a non Russian astronaut and will feature the first space walk (Extra Vehicular Activity) by an ESA astronaut.
ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter will fly with cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergej Avdeev. Christer Fuglesang will continue his training for this mission in Crew 2 with Gennadij Manakov and Pavel Vinogradov.
Note: A presentation on the EUROMIR programme and a press conference with Christer Fuglesang will take place on Sunday 19 March at 11:00 hrs at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. For accreditation please contact: Madeleine Biörck, Cosmonova, Stockholm:
+ 46 8 666 5103.