European Astronaut Corps


The European Astronaut Corps is a unit of the European Space Agency that selects, trains, and provides astronauts as crew members on U.S. and Russian space missions. The corps has 13 active members, able to serve on the International Space Station. The European Astronaut Corps is based at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. They can be assigned to various projects both in Europe or elsewhere in the world, at NASA Johnson Space Center or Star City.

History

Current members

As of 2024, there are eleven active members of the European Astronaut Corps. Five were selected in 2009, one was selected in 2015, and the remaining five selected in 2022.
Missions in italics are scheduled and subject to change.
NameCountrySelectionTime in spaceMissions
Samantha CristoforettiItaly

2009 Group

On 3 April 2008, ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain announced that recruiting for a new class of European astronauts will start in the near future. The selection program for 4 new astronauts was launched on 19 May 2008 with applications due by 16 June 2008 so that final selection would be due spring 2009. Almost 10,000 people registered as astronaut candidates as of 18 June 2008. 8,413 fulfilled the initial application criteria. From these 918 were chosen to take part in the first stage of psychological testing which led to 192 candidates on 24 September 2008. After two stage psychological tests 80 candidates continued on to medical evaluation in January–February 2009. 40 or so candidates head to formal interviews to select four new members to European Astronaut Corps.

2022 Group

Recruitment for the 2022 ESA Astronaut Group took place over 2021–22 and added five "career" astronauts as well as for the first time a "reserve pool" of 11 astronaut candidates, and also a person with a physical disability through the "parastronaut feasibility project".
In June 2023, Marcus Wandt, originally a reserve astronaut, was selected for Axiom Space mission and transitioned to "project" astronaut. This later was set in place for Polish reserve astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski.
NameCountryRole
Sophie AdenotFrance

Former members

There are 18 former members of the ESA astronaut corps.
Some ESA astronauts were selected by other European agencies and then enrolled into the European Astronaut Corps in 1998.
NameCountrySelectionTime in spaceMissions
Hans Schlegel

Heads of the EAC

The following people have served as Head of the European Astronaut Corps.
NameCountryYears servedMissions Flown
Ernst Messerschmid

European astronauts outside of ESA

Interkosmos

Ten Europeans became astronauts within the Soviet Union's Interkosmos program, which allowed citizens of allied nations to fly missions to the Salyut 6, Salyut 7 and Mir space station.
trained and flew astronauts from allied nations on the Space Shuttle, especially as payload specialists for scientific missions such as Spacelab. Prior to the foundation of the ESA astronaut corps, both the French CNES and the German DLR had selected their own rosters of astronauts, notably in preparation for the introduction of the ISS. The following people flew on various Shuttle missions.
The following people flew on missions to Mir under agreements between their nations and Russia.
developed their own independent Astronaut Program, HUNOR or the Hungarian to Orbit program, to select and train a Hungarian astronaut, and backup, for the private Axiom Mission 4. As such, despite being astronauts of the Hungarian Space Office, neither are members of the European Astronaut Corps.
Astronauts from the European Astronaut Corps participated in several NASA Space Shuttle missions before the ISS era, in particular as Spacelab payload specialists. NASA considered the full-time ESA astronauts as payload specialists, but offered some the opportunity to train with its own astronauts and become NASA mission specialists. ''''

As Payload Specialists

Astronauts from Europe have flown to Mir both on board Soyuz vehicles or on board the Space Shuttle.
European astronauts to have visited the ISS are:
AstronautAgencyMissionLaunchReturnExpeditionLaunch DateReturn DateNote

Future missions to the International Space Station

Future European astronauts to the ISS are:
AstronautAgencyMissionLaunchReturnExpeditionLaunch DateReturn DateNote