Happy birthday, ESA astronaut Frank De Winne!

Frank De Winne, born April 25, 1961 in Belgium, has been in space twice and is the second Belgian astronaut after Dirk Frimout.

His first trip into space was aboard Soyuz TMA-1 as Flight Engineer in October 2002 to the International Space Station.  He returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-34 in November.

His second trip was aboard Soyuz TMA-15 as Flight Engineer to the ISS in May 2009.  He returned to Earth in December 2009.

He spent over 198 days in space.

Soyuz TMA-1 launched 2002

Soyuz TMA-1 crew (L-R): Frank de Winne, Sergei Zalyotin and Yuri Lonchakov

Soyuz TMA-1 mission patch

Soyuz TMA-1 was launched October 30, 2002 to the International Space Station.  Its crew consisted  of Commander Sergei Zalyotin, Flight Engineer Frank De Winne (ESA) and Yury Lonchakov.  The crew returned on Soyuz TM-34, which landed November 10.

The landing crew consisted of Commander Nikolai Budarin, Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit, who returned to Earth May 4, 2003.

Soyuz TMA-1 was in orbit when the Columbia disaster occurred, and that forced a change in how crews were changed out.  The Soyuz spacecraft became the sole method to exchange crews on the ISS until  the space shuttle program was reinstated in July 2005.