Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Happy birthday, German astronaut Thomas Reiter!


German astronaut Thomas Reiter, born May 23, 1958 in Frankfurt, West Germany, went into space for the European Space Agency.  He has spent over 350 days in space, more than any non-American or non-Russian.  He is also the first German to perform an EVA.

His first trip into space was aboard Soyuz TM-22 to the space station Mir.  He was part of expedition Mir EO-20 from September 1995 to February 1996.  During this time he conducted two EVAs, becoming the first German to perform a space walk. 

His second trip was aboard Discovery (STS-121) to the International Space Station as a mission specialist in July 2006, when he became part of Expedition 13.  He remained on board the ISS to become a member of Expedition 14.  He was replaced by Sunita Williams in December, aboard Discovery (STS-116).

No comments: