Euromir was an international space programme in the 1990s. Between the

Russian Federal Space Agency The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

and the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

(ESA), it would bring European astronauts to the Mir space station. Euromir was part of a drive in the early 1990s to recruit and train European astronauts for the then-planned

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

(ISS). Trips on the US

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially 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. Its official program na ...

and the Russia Mir space station would give ESA astronauts experience in space (ESA's

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

Precursor Flights programme) and help all parties learn to have experience in international cooperation. ESA's 1992 intake of astronauts were trained up, with two being sent to on Shuttle missions. Four were selected for Mir and an agreement was signed to train them further at the

Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC; Russian: Центр подготовки космонавтов имени Ю. А. Гагарина) is a Russian training facility responsible for trai ...

. In 1993, a contract for two flights was signed, with Ulf Merbold and

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 Eur ...

being the prime candidates for 1994 and 1995, respectively. Pedro Duque and

Christer Fuglesang Arne Christer Fuglesang (born 18 March 1957) is a Swedish physicist and an ESA astronaut. He was first launched aboard the STS-116 Space Shuttle mission on 10 December 2006, making him the first Swedish citizen in space. Married with three chil ...

were chosen as backups. They were trained on Russian language and the systems of

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

and Mir. Merbold and Reiter flew on EuroMir 94 ( Soyuz TM-20/ Soyuz TM-19) and EuroMir 95 ( Soyuz TM-22), respectively. During Reiter's mission, he performed two spacewalks.

References

* http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Space_Year_2007/SEMHBF5Y1ZG_0.html * http://www.esa.int/esaCP/Pr_28_1994_p_EN.html European Space Agency Mir European astronauts {{Space-stub