Léopold Eyharts

• Mir- Pegase Soyuz TM -26 TM-27/Sojus (1998)

• ISS Expedition 16

Léopold Eyharts ( born April 28, 1957 in Biarritz, Pyrenees- Atlantiques département, France ) is a French astronaut.

Biography

Eyharts grew in the department of Pyrénées- Atlantiques, in southwestern France near the border with Spain on. He wanted to be a pilot and therefore entered the mid-1970s in the French Air Force ADLA ( Armee de l' Air) a. From 1977 he attended the Air Force Academy EA ( Ecole de l' Air) in Salon- de -Provence ( Bouches -du- Rhône). He studied aeronautical engineering and graduated in 1979 from flight school. This was followed by a one-year advanced course as a fighter pilot in Tours ( Indre- et- Loire).

Eyharts was appointed head of the 7th Fighter Squadron, which is stationed at the Istres air base in the department of Bouches -du -Rhône and equipped with fighter-bombers of the type Jaguar. In 1985, he was promoted and appointed commander of the base at Saint -Dizier ( Haute- Marne). After two years of " office work ", he returned to Istres and settled on the French test pilot school EPNER ( Ecole du Personnel Navigant d' Essais et de Reception ) form. In 1988 he received his diploma test pilot and was transferred to the flight test center at the military airfield Brétigny -sur -Orge near Paris. Two years later he was promoted to chief test pilot.

Astronauts activity

End of the 1980s, Eyharts competed with the French space agency CNES ( Centre National d' Études Spatiales ) as an astronaut (French Spationaut ). Together with Philippe Perrin, Jean -Marc Gasparini and Benoit Silve Eyharts was in February 1990 CNES selected with the third group. He first came to Toulouse ( Haute- Garonne ) to participate in the development of the planned European space shuttle Hermes.

In July 1990, Air Force Major Eyharts was among the six candidates who proposed the CNES of the former Soviet space agency Glawkosmos as a possible research cosmonaut for a mission to the Mir space station in 1992. Although he was not considered, however, participated in two short training courses in Russia in part: 1991 for six weeks in Star City near Moscow and in May 1993 a two-week survival training. He was also trained the end of 1992 in dealing with the Russian space shuttle Buran.

When the European Space Agency in spring 1992 selected their second squad, Eyharts was ignored. In the meantime, put him CNES as a test pilot for the Caravelle, were performed with the parabolic flights. In 1994, he headed the test flights for the successor to the Caravelle, the Airbus A300.

Mid-July 1994 were nominated for the Franco- Russian mission Mir- Cassiopée aboard Mir Claudie André- Deshays and Léopold Eyharts. In December it was decided that André- Deshays will board the flight in August 1996 with Soyuz TM -24 and Eyharts was her substitute. The one and a half years of training began in January 1995., The first ten months of consisted mainly of theoretical courses, the last eight of practical courses.

In December 1996, Lieutenant Colonel Eyharts the contract for his first space flight was granted. The Franco- Russian cooperation was called Mir- Pegase and was the successor of " Cassiopée ". Together with Talghat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin broke Eyharts end of January 1998 on Soyuz TM -27. After three weeks of research - so Eyharts examined the effects of weightlessness on half a dozen ribs newt female - he returned to Earth, while his Russian colleagues worked for six months on board the Mir station.

In August 1998, Colonel Léopold Eyharts joined the newly founded European Astronaut Corps. The ESA sent him together with the German Hans Schlegel and the two Italians Paolo Nespoli and Roberto Vittori for training in the United States. They strengthened the 17 astronauts group of NASA, and have at the Johnson Space Center (JSC ) in Houston (Texas ) trained for two years to mission specialists. Then headed Eyharts at JSC, the Department of Software Systems and Information Technology of the International Space Station ( ISS).

Eyharts got together with some other astronauts from April 2001 further training at ISS components. This included getting to know the modules with the respective manufacturers. First, they remained in the United States. In December 2001, the astronauts traveled to Japan for two months to familiarize yourself with the Kibo module. End of August 2002 was followed by a two -week training course in Cologne at the European Astronaut Centre of ESA.

From October 2004 trained Eyharts as a substitute of Thomas Reiter for the first long-term stay by a West European on board the ISS. Reiter has been associated with the Shuttle STS-121 mission to the ISS, where he worked from July to December 2006. Eyharts In 2007 was promoted to brigadier general.

Eyharts was for riders of the next Western Europeans on the space station, but for a shorter stay. Eyharts broke on February 7, 2008 with STS -122 to the ISS and returned one and a half months later, on March 27 with STS -123 back.

Private

Eyharts is married and has one child.