Europe’s space missions
In a little over two decades the various national space agencies of Europe together with ESA have performed 32 space flights with 27 astronauts. Sixteen European astronauts have participated in 18 US Space Shuttle missions and 11 have flown as crew members on board 14 Russian Soyuz missions.
Since 1991, Europe has participated in approximately one spaceflight per year, a rate which is likely to continue until at least 2006. Such flight opportunities provide European astronauts with invaluable all-round experience, from performing ‘spacewalks’ or acting as Flight Engineer on Soyuz to participating in long-term space missions. It is for this reason that ESA is proposing to continue the cooperation with the Russian agencies to give European astronauts additional flight opportunities over coming years.
Three Europeans are already trained as Soyuz re-entry commanders, a useful skill considering that Soyuz is currently the only on-orbit rescue vehicle available until the Crew Return Vehicle becomes operational.