Michel Ange-Charles Tognini (born 30 September 1949 in

Vincennes, France Vincennes (; ) is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Vincennes is famous for its castle: the Château de Vincennes. It is next to but does not include the ...

) is a French

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, brigadier general in the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (, , ) is the air force, air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the ("Aeronautical Service"), a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the Fr ...

, and a former

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 ESA

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 ...

who served from 1 January 2005 to 1 November 2011 as head of the European Astronaut Centre 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 ...

. A veteran of two space flights, Tognini has logged a total of 19 days in space. Tognini has 4000 flight hours on 80 types of aircraft (mainly fighter aircraft, including the

MiG-25 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (; NATO reporting name: Foxbat) is a supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft that is among the fastest military aircraft to enter service. Designed by the Soviet Union's Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau, it is a ...

, Tupolev 154, Lightning MK-3 and MK-5,

Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneere ...

, and

F-104 The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic Interceptor aircraft, interceptor. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fighter aircraft for the United States Air ...

). He is fluent in English and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Early life

Tognini was born on 30 September 1949 in

. Following graduation from Lycée de Cachan in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, He attended EPA Grenoble military school (French: ''École des pupilles de l'air 749 Grenoble-Montbonnot'') and then went on to study at the Ecole de l'Air, graduating in 1973.

Military career

Following graduation from the academy, Tognini was posted to advanced fighter pilot training at a squadron based at Normandie-Niemen where he served for one year before obtaining his advanced fighter pilot training. From 1974–1981, he served in the French Air Force as an operational fighter pilot ( Cambrai Air Base), at the 12th Escadre de Chasse, flying SMB2 and

Mirage F1 The Dassault Mirage F1 is a French fighter and attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was developed as a successor to the Mirage III family. During the 1960s, Dassault commenced development of what would become t ...

aircraft. During this tour of duty he served as flight leader in 1976, and flight commander in 1979. In 1982, he was admitted to the ''

Empire Test Pilots' School The Empire Test Pilots' School (ETPS) is a British training school for test pilots and flight test engineers of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft at MoD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, England. It was established in 1943, the first of its type. ...

'' in

Boscombe Down MOD Boscombe Down ' is the home of a military aircraft testing site, on the south-eastern outskirts of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire, England. The site is managed by QinetiQ, the private defence company created as part of the breakup of the D ...

, United Kingdom, and later that year was awarded his test pilot diploma. He was awarded his military studies diploma in 1983. Tognini was then posted to the Cazaux Flight Test Center, France, initially as a test pilot and subsequently as chief test pilot. During his time there, he helped test a great deal of French flight hardware. He did the weapon systems testing for the Mirage 2000-C, Mirage 2000-N, Jaguar ATLIS, and

FLIR Forward-looking infrared (FLIR) cameras, typically used on military and civilian aircraft, use a thermographic camera that senses infrared radiation. The sensors installed in forward-looking infrared cameras, as well as those of other thermal ...

aircraft, and was also responsible for flight safety for pilots, experimenters and flight engineers.

Astronaut career

In 1985, France opened a recruitment program to expand its astronaut corps, and Tognini was one of seven candidates selected by

. In July 1986, he was one of four candidates to undergo medical examinations in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. In August 1986, he was assigned as a back-up crew member for the

Soyuz TM-7 Soyuz TM-7 was a crewed Soyuz spaceflight to Mir.The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-TM7.htm It launched on 26 November 1988, at 15:49:34, and was the start of the fourth long duration expedition t ...

mission. Although Tognini remained a French Air Force officer, he was placed on detachment to

for his space flight activities from September 1986 onwards. In November 1986 he reported to the

Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center 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 tra ...

, Star City, Russia, for alternate cosmonaut training, including EVA, for the Soviet-French ARAGATZ mission. During 1989–1990 he supported the Hermes program in

Toulouse, France Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

Antares

In 1991 he returned to Star City, Russia, to start prime crew training for the third Soviet-French ANTARES mission. During his stay in Russia, Tognini also gained piloting experience of BURAN simulators (MiG-25, Tupolev 154). Tognini made his first spaceflight on 27 July 1992 aboard

Soyuz TM-15 Soyuz TM-15 was the 15th expedition to the 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 st ...

(returning on Soyuz TM-14 on 10 August). Together with

Anatoly Solovyev Anatoly Yakovlevich Solovyev (; ; alternate spelling "Solovyov"; born 16 January 1948) is a retired Latvian and Soviet Union, Soviet cosmonaut and pilot. Solovyev holds the List of cumulative spacewalk records, world record on the number of extra- ...

and

Sergei Avdeyev Sergei Vasilyevich Avdeyev (Сергей Васильевич Авдеев; born 1 January 1956) is a former Russian engineer and cosmonaut. Avdeyev was born in Chapayevsk, Samara Oblast (formerly Kuybyshev Oblast), Russian SFSR. He graduat ...

he linked up with

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 ...

(ANTARES mission) and joined the crew of Alexander Viktorenko and Alexander Kaleri already on board. They spent 14 days carrying out a program of joint Soviet-French experiments before returning to Earth. He returned to France following the mission. During 1993–94, he attended a training cycle of the French Institute for High Studies of National Defense (IHEDN). Tognini attended ASCAN Training at the

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 controller, flight control are conducted. ...

during 1995. He was initially assigned to the Operations Planning Branch of the Astronaut Office working technical issues 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 ...

, and was subsequently assigned to the Robotics Branch. Tognini was then assigned as ISS

CAPCOM is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...

Mission Control A mission control center (MCC, sometimes called a flight control center or operations center) is a facility that manages space flights, usually from the point of launch until landing or the end of the mission. It is part of the ground segment ...

STS-93

Following training at the JSC, Tognini was made available for assignment as a space shuttle mission specialist. Tognini flew aboard

Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the Columbia Rediviva, first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, and the Columbia (personification) ...

STS-93 STS-93 in 1999 marked the 95th launch of the Space Shuttle, the 26th launch of Space Shuttle Columbia, ''Columbia'', and the 21st night launch of a Space Shuttle. Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle Commander on this flight. Its prima ...

(22–27 July 1999) (STS: Space transportation System). During the five-day mission his primary task was to assist in the deployment of the

Chandra X-Ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources ...

, and to conduct a spacewalk if needed. He retired from active astronaut status in May 2003. After having been Head of the European Astronaut Division, he has been the Head of EAC ( European Astronaut Centre) in Cologne, Germany. Now he is in France working for Human Space Exploration with University and performing speeches for general public. He is also the President of GAMA (Groupe Aéronautique du Ministere de l'Air) and President of Space Conseil.

Awards and honors

* Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite * Commander de l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur * Soviet Order of Friendship between the People * Russian Order of Friendship between the People

References

External links

ESA profile page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tognini, Michel 1949 births Living people French spationauts École de l'air alumni Space Shuttle program astronauts Mir crew members CNES personnel