The European Astronaut Corps is a unit of the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(ESA) that selects, trains, and provides

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

s 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 International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS). The European Astronaut Corps is based at the

European Astronaut Centre The European Astronaut Centre (EAC) (German: Europäisches Astronautenzentrum, French: Centre des astronautes européens), is an establishment of the European Space Agency and home of the European Astronaut Corps. It is near to Cologne, Germany, ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, Germany. They can be assigned to various projects both in Europe (at

ESTEC The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, alth ...

, for instance) or elsewhere in the world, at

NASA Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in ...

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. All of the current members of the corps, other than the 2022 ESA Group, have flown to space and have visited the ISS. French astronaut

Thomas Pesquet Thomas Gautier Pesquet (; born 27 February 1978) is a French aerospace engineer, aviator, pilot, European Space Agency astronaut, actor, musician, and writer. Pesquet was selected by ESA as a candidate in May 2009, and he successfully completed ...

is the member of the corps who has accumulated the most time in space with 396 days, 11 hours and 34 minutes. He is the record holder for all the European astronauts in history. The corps currently includes

Samantha Cristoforetti Samantha Cristoforetti (; born 26 April 1977) is an Italian European Astronaut Corps, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She is the second of two Women in space, women sent into space by ESA and ...

, who formerly held the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman. Timothy Peake, a member of the 2009 group, retired in 2023.

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 The 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group is the latest class of the European Astronaut Corps. The selection recruited five "career" astronauts as well as 12 "reserve/project" astronauts (including one "astronaut with a physical disability") ...

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 A physical disability is a limitation on a person's physical functioning, mobility, dexterity or stamina. Other physical disabilities include impairments which limit other facets of daily living, such as respiratory disorders, blindness, epilepsy ...

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 Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, née Uznański (Polish: ; born 12 April 1984 in Łódź) is a Polish engineer working at the European Space Agency (ESA) as a project astronaut since 2023, and was formerly employed at CERN. Early life and educat ...

. The funding by NASA and Russia of the

is currently planned to end in 2030. Thanks to their involvement with NASA's

Orion program Orion (Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or Orion MPCV) is a Reusable spacecraft, partially reusable crewed spacecraft used in NASA's Artemis program. The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module (CM) space capsule designed by Lockheed Martin that ...

me, ESA will receive three flight opportunities for European astronauts to the

Lunar Gateway The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is a planned space station which is to be assembled in orbit around the Moon. The Gateway is intended to serve as a communication hub, science laboratory, and habitation module for astronauts as part ...

.Positive signs for Europe as ESA goes forward to the Moon
/ref>

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.

Heads of the EAC

The following people (all retired or active duty astronauts) have served as Head of the European Astronaut Corps.

European astronauts outside of ESA

Interkosmos

Ten Europeans became astronauts within the Soviet Union's

Interkosmos Interkosmos () was a Soviet space program, designed to help the Soviet Union's allies with Human spaceflight, crewed and Uncrewed spacecraft, uncrewed space missions. The program was formed in April 1967 in Moscow. All members of the program fr ...

program, which allowed citizens of allied nations to fly missions to the

Salyut 6 Salyut 6 () was a Soviet orbital space station, the eighth station of the Salyut programme, and alternatively known DOS-5 as it was the fifth of the Durable Orbital Station series of civilian space stations. It was launched on 29 September 19 ...

Salyut 7 Salyut 7 (), also known as DOS-6 (Durable Orbital Station 6) was a space station in low Earth orbit from April 1982 to February 1991. It was first crewed in May 1982 with two crew via Soyuz T-5, and last visited in June 1986, by Soyuz T-15. Va ...

and

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

space station. * Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandrov *

Jean-Loup Chrétien Jean-Loup Jacques Marie Chrétien (born 20 August 1938) is a French retired ''Général de Brigade'' (brigadier general) in the ''Armée de l'Air'' (French air force), and a former CNES spationaut. He flew on two Franco-Soviet space missions ...

Bertalan Farkas Bertalan Farkas (, born August 2, 1949) is the first Hungarian cosmonaut, space explorer and fighter pilot. Hungary became the seventh nation to be represented in space by him. Farkas is also the first Esperantist cosmonaut. He is currently the ...

Mirosław Hermaszewski Mirosław Hermaszewski (; 15 September 1941 – 12 December 2022) was a Polish cosmonaut, fighter plane pilot, and Polish Air Force officer. He became the first and, at the time of his death in December 2022, only Polish national to ever go t ...

* Georgi Ivanov *

Sigmund Jähn Sigmund Werner Paul Jähn (; 13 February 1937 – 21 September 2019) was a German Aircraft pilot, pilot, cosmonaut, and ''Generalmajor#Generalmajor in East Germany, Generalmajor'' (equivalent to a Brigadier General in Western armies) in the Nat ...

Dumitru Prunariu Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu (; born 27 September 1952) is a Romanian cosmonaut. He flew in space aboard Soyuz 40 spacecraft and Salyut 6 space laboratory. He teamed with the Soviet cosmonaut Leonid Popov. The backup crew was made of Romanian candidat ...

Vladimír Remek Vladimír Remek (born 26 September 1948) is a Czech politician and diplomat, as well as a former cosmonaut and military pilot. He flew aboard Soyuz 28 from 2 to 10 March 1978, becoming the first and only Czechoslovak in space. As the first c ...

* Helen Sharman *

Franz Viehböck Franz Artur Viehböck (born 24 August 1960 in Vienna) is an Austrian electrical engineering, electrical engineer and cosmonaut, who became the first Austrian to fly in space. He visited the Mir space station in 1991 aboard Soyuz TM-13, returning ...

Space Shuttle

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

trained and flew astronauts from allied nations on the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

, especially as payload specialists for scientific missions such as

Spacelab Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...

. Prior to the foundation of the ESA astronaut corps, both the French

CNES CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...

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. *

Patrick Baudry Patrick Pierre Roger Baudry (born March 6, 1946, in French Cameroon, Cameroon) is a retired lieutenant colonel in the French Air Force and a former CNES astronaut. In 1985, he became the second French citizen in space, after Jean-Loup Chrétien, ...

Jean-Jacques Favier Jean-Jacques Favier (; 13 April 1949 – 19 March 2023) was a German-born French engineer and a CNES astronaut who flew aboard the STS-78 NASA Space Shuttle mission in 1996. Favier was due to fly aboard the doomed '' Columbia'' mission in 2003 ...

Dirk Frimout Dirk Dries David Damiaan, Viscount Frimout (born 21 March 1941 in Poperinge, Belgium) is a Belgian astrophysicist for the European Space Agency. He flew aboard NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-45 as a payload specialist, making him the first Belg ...

Reinhard Furrer Reinhard Alfred Furrer (25 November 1940 – 9 September 1995) was a German physicist and astronaut. Furrer was born in Wörgl, Ostmark (now Austria). After the end of World War II, his father was expelled from Austria. The family found a ne ...

Leonid Kadeniuk Leonid Kostyantynovych Kadenyuk (, 28 January 1951 – 31 January 2018) was the first astronaut of independent Ukraine to fly into outer space. In 1997, he flew on NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia, Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' as part of the ...

Franco Malerba Franco Egidio Malerba (born 10 October 1946 in Busalla, Metropolitan City of Genoa, Italy) is an Italian astronaut and Member of the European Parliament. He was the first citizen of Italy to travel to space. In 1994, he was elected to the Europ ...

* Ulrich Walter

Russian Mir missions

The following people flew on missions to

under agreements between their nations and Russia. * Ivan Bella * Klaus-Dietrich Flade

Future

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

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 Axiom Mission 4 (Ax‑4) is a private spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) operated by Axiom Space in partnership with SpaceX and NASA. It used SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket to place into low Earth orbit. This is the maiden fli ...

. As such, despite being astronauts of the Hungarian Space Office, neither are members of the European Astronaut Corps. *

Tibor Kapu Tibor Kapu () (born 5 November 1991) is a Hungarian mechanical engineer and astronaut. He is flying to the International Space Station as a mission specialist on the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) mission which launched 25 June 2025, with Kapu becoming ...

* Gyula Cserényi

Space Shuttle missions

Astronauts from the European Astronaut Corps participated in several

missions before the ISS era, in particular as

payload specialist A payload specialist (PS) was an individual selected and trained by commercial or research organizations for flights of a specific payload on a NASA Space Shuttle mission. People assigned as payload specialists included individuals selected by t ...

s. 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 specialist Mission specialist (MS) is a term for a specific position held by astronauts who are tasked with conducting a range of scientific, medical, or engineering experiments during a spaceflight mission. These specialists were usually assigned to a s ...

s. ''(This list excludes missions to Mir or the ISS)''

As Payload Specialists

* Ulf Merbold –

STS-9 STS-9 (also referred to Spacelab 1) was the ninth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the sixth mission of the Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. Launched on November 28, 1983, the ten-day mission carried the first Spacelab laboratory module into orbit. ...

(

STS-42 STS-42 was a NASA Space Shuttle Space Shuttle Discovery, ''Discovery'' mission with the Spacelab module. Liftoff was originally scheduled for 8:45 Eastern Time Zone, EST (13:45 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC) on January 22, 1992, but the launc ...

(Spacelab) * Reinhard Furrer –

STS-61-A STS-61-A (also known as Spacelab D-1) was the 22nd mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. It was a scientific Spacelab mission, funded and directed by West Germany – hence the non-NASA designation of D-1 (for Deutschland-1). STS-61-A was th ...

(Spacelab-D1 Mission) * Wubbo Ockels –

(Spacelab-D1 Mission) * Hans Schlegel – STS-55 (Spacelab-D2 Mission) * Ulrich Walter – STS-55 (Spacelab-D2 Mission)

As Mission Specialists

* Claude Nicollier –

STS-46 STS-46 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission using and was launched on July 31, 1992, and landed on August 8, 1992. Crew Crew seat assignments Mission highlights Gallery File:Sts046-99-039 - cropped.jpg, EURECA after deployment File ...

STS-61 STS-61 was NASA's first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and the fifth flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Space Shuttle ''Endeavour''. The mission launched on December 2, 1993, from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The missi ...

(

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

)

STS-75 STS-75 was a 1996 NASA Space Shuttle mission, the 19th mission of the orbiter. Crew Crew seat assignments Mission objective Tethered Satellite System The primary objective of STS-75 was to carry the Tethered Satellite System Reflight (TS ...

STS-103 STS-103, the 96th launch of the Space Shuttle and the 27th launch of Space Shuttle ''Space Shuttle Discovery, Discovery'', was a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. It launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 19 December 1999 and ...

(Hubble) * Maurizio Cheli –

* Jean-François Clervoy – STS-66, STS-103 (Hubble) * Gerhard Thiele –

STS-99 STS-99 was a Space Shuttle mission using ''Endeavour'', that launched on 11 February 2000 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The primary objective of the mission was the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) project. This was also the last s ...

* Pedro Duque –

STS-95 STS-95 was a Space Shuttle mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 29 October 1998, using the orbiter Space Shuttle Discovery, ''Discovery''. It was the 25th flight of ''Discovery'' and the 92nd mission flown since the start of the ...

Missions to the Mir space stations

Astronauts from Europe have flown to

both on board

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Soviet Union, Union of Soviet Socialist Republi ...

vehicles (as part of the Euromir programme) or on board the

. *

– '' Aragatz'' (1988) * Helen Sharman –

Project Juno Project Juno was a privately funded campaign which selected Helen Sharman to be the first Briton in space. As the United Kingdom did not, at that time, have a human spaceflight programme (until the UK joined the human spaceflight elements of ...

(1991) *

– Austromir '91 (1991) * Klaus-Dietrich Flade – ''Mir'' '92 (1992) *

Michel Tognini Michel Ange-Charles Tognini (born 30 September 1949 in Vincennes, France) is a French test pilot, engineer, brigadier general in the French Air Force, and a former CNES and ESA astronaut who served from 1 January 2005 to 1 November 2011 as hea ...

– ''

Antarès Antarès is an indoor sporting arena that is located in Le Mans, France. The arena is located inside the Circuit de la Sarthe, home of the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, and adjacent to the first right kink on the Mulsanne Straight. The seating cap ...

'' (1992) * Jean-Pierre Haigneré – ''

Altair Altair is the brightest star in the constellation of Aquila (constellation), Aquila and the list of brightest stars, twelfth-brightest star in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation Alpha Aquilae, which is Latinisation of name ...

'' (1993) *

Ulf Merbold Ulf Dietrich Merbold (; born 20 June 1941) is a German physicist and astronaut who flew to space three times, becoming the first West German citizen in space and the first non-American to fly on a NASA spacecraft. Merbold flew on two Space Shu ...

– Euromir '94 (1994) *

Thomas Reiter Thomas Arthur Reiter (born 23 May 1958 in Frankfurt, West Germany) is a retired European astronaut and is a Brigadier General in the German Air Force currently working as ESA Interagency Coordinator and Advisor to the Director General at the E ...

– Euromir '95 (1995) *

Claudie Haigneré Claudie (André-Deshays) Haigneré (; born 13 May 1957) is a French doctor, politician and former astronaut. She was the Women in space, first female astronaut of the CNES, French space agency CNES and the ESA, European Space Agency (ESA) to go ...

– ''

Cassiopée Cassiopée (born 16 October 1977) is a francophone Canadian singer and entertainer. Since 2011, she has played the lead female character Lia in Cirque du Soleil show, '' Zarkana''. She also plays three of the four other female parts in the prod ...

'' (1996) * Reinhold Ewald – ''Mir'' '97 (1997) *

–

STS-86 STS-86 was a Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' mission to the ''Mir'' space station. This was the last ''Atlantis'' mission before it was taken out of service temporarily for maintenance and upgrades, including the glass cockpit. Crew Spacewalk *' ...

(1997) *

Léopold Eyharts Léopold "Leo" Eyharts (born 28 April 1957) is a French Brigadier General in the French Air Force, an engineer and ESA astronaut. He has flown to space two times as part of a Mir expedition and an International Space Station expedition. Eyh ...

– '' Pégase'' (1998) * Jean-Pierre Haigneré – ''

Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of ...

'' (1999) * Ivan Bella – '' Stefanik'' (1999)

Missions to the International Space Station

European astronauts to have visited the

ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (Europe), ...

are:

Future missions to the International Space Station

Future European astronauts to the