Hans Schlegel
- STS -55 ( 1993)
- STS- 122 (2008)
Hans Wilhelm Schlegel ( born August 3, 1951 in Überlingen, Baden- Württemberg ) is a German astronaut.
Life
Schlegel grew up in the then independent Bensberg (now Bergisch Gladbach) (North Rhine -Westphalia). In 1957 he started school and first attended the Protestant elementary school in the district Refrath before moving to the Albertus-Magnus -Gymnasium Bensberg. In 1965 he went to the Hansa -Gymnasium in Cologne. During this time he attended for a year as an AFS exchange student to the USA where he graduated in 1969 in Iowa, the Lewis Central High School in Council Bluffs ( located 15 kilometers east of Omaha ). A year later he passed the high school in Cologne.
Schlegel then entered his military service in the Bundeswehr. He had volunteered for the army and served his service in the paratroopers from. He was eventually ordered to company commander course and left the troupe in 1972 as a lieutenant of the reserve. In 1980 he was appointed by some military exercises to first lieutenant of the reserve.
Schlegel wrote in 1972 at the RWTH Aachen and studied physics. After his graduation, he received in 1979, he remained at the university. He worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Physics in the first field of solid state physics.
After seven years, Schlegel moved to the private sector, went back to Baden- Wurttemberg and began in September 1986 as a process engineer at the Institut Dr. Foerster GmbH & Co. KG in its headquarters in Reutlingen. The company founded in 1948 that works in the field of quality assurance in the metal industry, he worked in the research and development department.
Spaceman activity
Spacelab D-2
In August 1986, the then German Research and Testing Institute for Aerospace ( DFVLR ) - predecessor of today's German Centre for Aerospace - commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Research in all major newspapers by mission scientists for the second German Spacelab flight (D -2) sought. It called for a university degree in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine or engineering as well as a multi-year research activity. In addition, was a doctoral degree in the above areas of advantage. A good mental and physical general condition as well as excellent English skills associated with an age limit of 35 years was assumed.
On the call to 1799 national prospects, of which only 40 percent met the required criteria reported. 312 candidates were shortlisted. After the first medical survey by hereditary and allergic diseases or defective vision had to give up another 76. The remaining 236 candidates were subjected to a wide variety of knowledge and psychological tests. Only 9.7 percent (23 ) took this hurdle. The following health tests ( balance, circulation ) could fail for another ten candidates. In the end, 13 people ( nine men and four women) had enforced. A jury, which also included the three Altastronauten Merbold, Furrer and knife Schmid, finally, seventh from the five final candidates.
The then Minister of Research Riesenhuber presented the five finalists in August 1987 (it was Schlegel's 36th birthday ) to the public. Besides Schlegel reinforced the teacher and meteorologist Renate Brummer, the physicist Gerhard Thiele and Ulrich Walter and the doctor Heike Walpot from now on the German astronaut corps.
The five spacecraft contenders began in March 1988 at the headquarters of DFVLR in Cologne with the actual astronaut training (first " taster" already existed before - so the group in late 1987 undertook in the U.S. their first parabolic flights ). In 1990, with the exception of Walpot all as a payload specialist for the second German Spacelab flight ( D-2) on the short list. Since then, the four Germans trained alternately in Cologne and in Huntsville at the Marshall Space Flight Center and the Johnson Space Center (JSC ) in Houston. A year before the flight was the final choice on Schlegel and Walter.
The two German physicists started with five U.S. astronauts end of April 1993 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia into orbit. About 90 experiments supervised Walter and Schlegel during the ten-day flight, with most of the divisions biology and materials science originated. The employees worked in the European Spacelab, which flew in the cargo hold of a U.S. space shuttle for the seventh time.
Cosmonaut Schlegel / ESA astronaut
In 1995, Germany and Russia signed an agreement on the Mitflug a German astronaut to the space station Mir. Schlegel and his colleague Reinhold Ewald prepared themselves from the fall of 1995 in the " Star City " in Moscow on the mission before. Later Ewald was appointed to the flight crew of the company MIR '97 and launched aboard Soyuz TM -25 in February 1997, while Schlegel served as substitute the flight from the ground.
Following MIR '97 Schlegel remained in Russia, trained with cosmonauts in the simulators and received in January 1998 by the Russian space agency, the certificate as the "Second Flight Engineer " for the Mir station. In the same year, the German astronaut corps of the DLR was integrated into the European Astronaut Corps, and Schlegel since then is like the other German astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA).
When NASA
The ESA Schlegel sent immediately to the United States. Together with the French Eyharts and the two Italians Nespoli and Vittori he took from August 1998 JSC in the training mission specialist part. The ESA delegation trained with the 17 astronauts group of NASA and, after two years of their degree.
Then remained Schlegel in the U.S. and continued to work in the office of the JSC astronaut. Initially he worked in the Department for the International Space Station (ISS). From 2002 he was responsible with other astronauts as CapCom for the ISS radio traffic, sometimes in a managerial capacity.
From the summer of 2006 trained Schlegel for the shuttle mission STS- 122, which transported the European Columbus laboratory to the ISS. After the start date because of technical problems with the fuel tank of the shuttle had been postponed several times, the mission in February 2008 was performed. Schlegel was the last German participants in a space shuttle mission.
Private
Hans Schlegel is married to his second wife Heike Walpot, which until 1992 was also on the Astronaut Corps of the DLR in 1987, and has seven children, including four from his first marriage.