Hans Wilhelm Schlegel (

Überlingen Überlingen (; ) is a German city on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Baden-Württemberg near the German-Swiss border, border with Switzerland. After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second-largest city in the Bodenseek ...

, 3 August 1951) is a German physicist, a former

ESA The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member 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 in the context of European ...

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 ...

, and a veteran of two

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 ...

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. ...

missions.

Early life and education

Schlegel, born and raised in Germany, graduated as an international exchange student from Lewis Central High School in

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The population was 62,799 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the state's List of cities in Iowa, te ...

and Hansa Gymnasium in Cologne before studying physics at

RWTH Aachen University RWTH Aachen University (), in German ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen'', is a German public research university located in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With more than 47,000 students enrolled in 144 study prog ...

in his home country. After having received his university degree, he conducted research in semiconductor physics before being trained as an astronaut in the late 1980s by the

German Aerospace Center The German Aerospace Center (, abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany, founded in 1969. It is headquartered in Cologne with 3 ...

(DLR). He flew as a DLR payload specialist in 1993 aboard Space Shuttle mission

STS-55 STS-55, or Deutschland 2 (D-2), was the 55th overall flight of the NASA Space Shuttle and the 14th flight of Shuttle '' Columbia''. This flight was a multinational Spacelab flight involving 88 experiments from eleven different nations. The expe ...

, which included the German-sponsored

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, ...

D-2 research module.

ESA career

From 1995 to 1997, he trained as the backup crew member for the German-Russian Mir'97 mission, and afterwards received additional training in Russia to become qualified as a second board engineer for the

Mir space station ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 19 ...

. In 1998, he became a member of the

European Astronaut Corps The European Astronaut Corps is a unit of the European Space Agency (ESA) that selects, trains, and provides astronauts as crew members on U.S. and Russian space missions. The corps has 13 active members, able to serve on the International Space St ...

. Schlegel was a

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 ...

on the

STS-122 STS-122 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS), flown by the . STS-122 marked the 24th shuttle mission to the ISS, and the 121st Space Shuttle flight overall. The mission was also referred to as ISS-1E by the I ...

Space Shuttle mission. The mission was charged with carrying the

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, the capital city of the U.S. state of Ohio * Columbus, Georgia, a city i ...

laboratory into orbit and connecting it to 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 ...

. Hans was to perform a spacewalk on the first EVA (EVA1) of STS-122, on Sunday, 10 February 2008, in preparation for attaching the Columbus laboratory to the ISS. The EVA was postponed until Monday 11 February 2008 due to an undisclosed medical issue allegedly affecting Schlegel.

Stanley G. Love Stanley Glen Love (born June 8, 1965) is an American scientist and a NASA astronaut from Oregon. Early life Love was born on June 8, 1965, to Glen A. Love and Rhoda M. Love in San Diego, California. However, Love has stated he considers Eugene, O ...

performed the spacewalk instead of Schlegel. However, Schlegel did perform the second EVA on Wednesday 13 February 2008. During the spacewalk, he completed the replacement of the Nitrogen Tank Assembly on the P1 truss of the International Space Station, and installed

trunnion A trunnion () is a cylinder, cylindrical Boss (engineering), protrusion used as a mounting or pivoting point. First associated with cannons, they are an important military development. In mechanical engineering (see the Trunnion#Trunnion bearin ...

covers on the Columbus module.

External links

ESA profile page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlegel, Hans 1951 births Living people German astronauts RWTH Aachen University alumni European amateur radio operators Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Space Shuttle program astronauts Spacewalkers