Next year three more European astronauts are scheduled to fly to the
International Space Station (ISS). Since the Station was first permanently
manned in October 2000, five Europeans have already done so.....Paris, 5 December 2002
Press Release
N° 75-2002

Three European astronauts to fly to the International Space Station in
2003

Next year three more European astronauts are scheduled to fly to the
International Space Station (ISS). Since the Station was first permanently
manned in October 2000, five Europeans have already done so, in
cooperation with both the US and Russian space agencies.

The next flight with a crew including a member of the ESA astronaut corps
is scheduled for April, when the Spaniard Pedro Duque will fly out on a
Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a 10-day mission to the Station. In July
Sweden's Christer Fuglesang will board a US Space Shuttle for mission
STS-116, and in October André Kuipers, from the Netherlands, will leave on
a Soyuz for a 10-day mission to the Station.

The two European astronauts taking part in the Soyuz missions, as flight
engineers, will conduct comprehensive scientific research programmes
involving experiments which have been submitted by European scientists in
response to ESA 'Announcements of Opportunity'. These missions will
replace the Soyuz spacecraft which has been docked at the Station for 6
months, serving as the main emergency rescue craft for the resident crew.

The Space Shuttle mission (STS-116, or ISS assembly flight 12A.1) on which
Christer Fuglesang is to fly will add new segments to the Station's truss,
having taken the Expedition 8 crew out to the Station, and then return the
three astronauts on Expedition 7 to Earth. Christer

Fuglesang will carry out three Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs) to attach
new hardware to the space Station. Although commonly called 'spacewalks',
EVAs are highly demanding - far from being just a walk in space.

The missions planned will serve European space research in two ways:
enabling European scientists to make use of the research facilities on the
Station, and preparing European astronauts for their future role on the
ISS once the European space laboratory Columbus has been attached, in
2004.

"These missions reflect the successful continuation of the close
cooperation with our Russian and US partners," said ESA Director of Human
Space Flight, Jörg Feustel-Büechl, "and continue to advance European
scientific research on board the International Space Station before the
arrival of our own Columbus laboratory in 2004".

ESA also plans to use satellite video and 3-D display technology to enable
people on Earth, young people in particular, to share in the experience of
spaceflight more fully. Educational communication experiments will be
carried out as part of the ESA education programme.

Pedro Duque was born in Madrid in 1963 and holds a degree in aeronautical
engineering. In 1992 he joined the ESA astronaut corps. In August 1993,
Pedro Duque was trained in Star City in Russia in order to participate as
the prime Crew Interface Coordinator for the joint ESA-Russian Euromir 94
mission that took place from 3 October to 4 November 1994, Later on, Pedro
Duque was selected and trained as the alternate payload specialist for the
STS-78 Microgravity Spacelab Mission in 1996, and in 1998 he flew as
mission specialist on Space Shuttle Discovery with US veteran astronaut
John Glenn. On that mission, Pedro Duque was responsible for the five ESA
scientific facilities on board and for the extensive computer system used
on the Shuttle. He was one of three astronauts awarded the Prince of
Asturias Prize for International Cooperation in 1999.

Christer Fuglesang was born in Stockholm in 1957 and holds a Ph.D. in
particle physics. In 1992 he was selected and trained for the European
astronaut corps. In 1995 Christer Fuglesang was selected as a member of
Crew 2 for the Euromir 95 mission. He was later seconded by ESA to NASA's
Johnson Space Center as Prime Increment Support Astronaut for the
Expedition 2 Crew. STS-116 will be his first space mission.

André Kuipers was born in Amsterdam in 1958 and holds a medical doctor's
degree. He has carried out substantial space and flight-related
physiological research. Since 1991 he has been responsible for the
coordination and execution of ESA's extensive physiological experiments
for space missions. He has also been responsible for coordination of life
science experiments for ESA's parabolic flight campaigns. Since 1999
André Kuipers has been a member of the European astronaut corps. This will
be his first space mission.