Astronauts Before 1990s
In 1976 East Germany selected Sigmund Jähn and Eberhard Köllner as the participants of Intercosmos missions to the Soviet Salyut 6 space station. Jähn flew in 1978 on Soyuz 31.
1978 ESA selected a first group of astronauts to fly on the Space Shuttle on Spacelab missions. Among this first group was Ulf Merbold, who then also flew the first Spacelab mission STS-9. In the second ESA selection 1992 Thomas Reiter was selected.
For the first German sponsored Spacelab mission D-1 Reinhard Furrer and Ernst Messerschmid were selected in 1983, both flew on STS-61-A in 1985.
Read more about this topic: German Astronaut Team
Famous quotes containing the word astronauts:
“Just opening up the door, having this ordinary person fly, says a lot for the future. You can always equate astronauts with explorers who were subsidized. Now you are getting someone going just to observe. And then you’ll have the settlers.”
—Christa McAuliffe (1948–1986)