European Astronaut Centre

The European Astronaut Centre ( engl. European Astronaut Centre, EAC) is the central institution of the European Space Agency ( ESA) for the training of astronauts. It is located on the site of the German Aerospace Center (DLR ) in Cologne.

In EAC trained, among others, the European Astronaut Corps for space missions, mainly on the International Space Station (ISS).

In 1990, the ESA Council of Ministers decided ( the body in which the research ministers of all member states are represented, and the fundamental decisions applies) that Europe is a private astronaut corps and its own manned space needed. However, according to previous considerations, Europe (or the ESA) than developing a manned launch system, but only in conjunction with the U.S. space shuttle or Russian Soyuz spacecraft launch.

As part of the ISS program to train the EAC not only European astronauts, but also Russian, American, Canadian and Japanese. The contract for the operation of the station provides that the astronauts involved in the project be allowed to train in all training institutions. The most important training programs include training for the shuttle ATV and the European space laboratory Columbus.

The EAC is a swimming pool which is 17 meters x 22 meters tall and has a depth of 10 m. There, outside bets are rehearsed in space under zero gravity -like conditions. For this purpose, models of large space station modules are left in the tank.