Deutsche im Weltall 2
Germans in Space: Eine Chronik - A Chronology
Part 1 > Chronology > Glossary
Before Gerhard Thiele in 2000, nine other Germans had already gone into space—on either American or Russian spacecraft. Other than Sigmund Jähn, who was an officer in the East German National Volksarmee, and Klaus-Dietrich Flade, a Bundeswehr test pilot, all the German astronauts were physicists.
Timeline: Germans in Space
1978 | East German Sigmund Jähn becomes the first German in orbit, aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 31 (German: Sojus). Along with the Soviet commander, Jähn links up with and goes aboard the space station (Raumstation) Salyut 6 (German: Saljut).
1983 | West German Ulf Merbold makes two trips aboard the U.S. space shuttle (Raumfähre) Columbia.
1985 | Ernst Messerschmid and Reinhard Furrer are part of the crew for a NASA "Spacelab" flight under German control (D-1 mission).
1992 | In March Klaus-Dietrich Flade becomes the fifth German astronaut. Aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-14, Flade travels to the Mir space station—in orbit 400km (250 miles) above the earth since February 1986.
1993 | In the spring, Ulrich Walter and Hans Schlegel are part of a seven-man crew for the German-American D-2 mission aboard the Columbia space shuttle (an Bord der Columbia-Raumfähre). Schlegel will return to space in February 2008 (see below).
1994 | Merbold rides aboard the U.S. shuttle Discovery.
1994 | In October Merbold takes the space capsule (Raumkapsel) Soyuz TM 19 to the Mir station, where he conducts experiments for 31 days. This trip was for the ESA (Europäische Raumfahrtagentur) headquartered in Paris.
German astronaut Thomas Reiter flew aboard
both the Mir and International Space Stations.
Photo: NASA
1995-1996 | Thomas Reiter remains in space aboard the Mir space station for 180 days on the ESA-sponsored Euromir mission. In space from 5 September 1995 until 29 February 1996, Reiter broke the non-Russian record. Reiter will return to space in July 2006 (see below).
1997 | Reinhold Ewald spends 18 days aboard the Mir participating in a joint German-Russian mission.
2000 | On 12 February Gerhard Thiele blasts into space aboard the Endeavour for the SMTR earth-mapping mission.
2001 | On 23 March the Russian Mir space station is intentionally deorbited, entering the Earth's atmosphere over the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific, breaking up, burning, and falling into the ocean. During its 15 years in orbit, several Germans had spent time aboard Mir, including Thomas Reiter, Klaus-Dietrich Flade, Reinhold Ewald, and Ulf Merbold. (See List of Mir crews from Wikipedia.)
2003 | On 1 February, seven U.S. astronauts perish aboard the shuttle Columbia when it burns up and disintegrates during its return approach. Germans Ulrich Walter, Hans Schlegel, and Ulf Merbold all participated in earlier missions aboard the Columbia.
2004 | Cassini-Huygens was a joint American-European project. The Germans contributed the instrumentation for the Doppler Wind Experiment (DWE) designed to determine the direction and magnitude of the winds in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. More: Cassini-Huygens Web site (NASA/JPL).
2006 | Thomas Reiter flies aboard Discovery on July 4 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, docking with the International Space Station on July 6. In December he is replaced by NASA astronaut Sunita Williams. Reiter also spent six months aboard Russia's Mir space station in 1995-1996.
2008 | Hans Schlegel who also flew with NASA (Columbia) in 1993, flies aboard Atlantis on February 7 from the Kennedy Space Center, later docking with the International Space Station to install the ESA space lab unit Columbus.
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Web Links
NASA Space Flight
The official NASA site.
Raumfahrtgeschichte.de
A decade-by-decade look at space travel. In German.
Cassini-Huygens: Probe Instruments
The NASA/JPL site for this joint American-European project. The Germans are responsible for the Doppler Wind Experiment (DWE) on Titan.
Heavens Above
Satellites, astronomy, and space missions - in English. From Heavens Above GmbH in Oberpfaffenhofen, Deutschland.
NASA Space Shuttle - SMTR Mission Crew
NASA's crew data page includes Gerhard Thiele and the other five crew members. Crew photo.
NEXT > Air & Space Travel Glossary
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