Claude Nicollier
| Claude Nicollier | |
|---|---|
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| ESA Astronaut | |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Status | Retired from ESA |
| Born |
2 September 1944 Vevey, Switzerland |
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Other occupation
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Professor at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland |
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Time in space
|
42d 12h 05m |
| Selection | 1978 ESA Group |
| Missions | STS-46, STS-61, STS-75, STS-103 |
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Mission insignia
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Claude Nicollier (born 2 September 1944 in Vevey, Switzerland) is the first astronaut from Switzerland. He has flown on four Space Shuttle missions. His first spaceflight (STS-46) was in 1992, and his final spaceflight (STS-103) was in 1999. He took part in two servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope (called STS-61 and STS-103). During his final spaceflight he participated in a spacewalk, becoming the first European Space Agency astronaut to do so during a Space Shuttle mission (previous ESA astronauts conducted spacewalks aboard Mir, see List of spacewalks and moonwalks 1965–1999). In 2000 he was assigned to the Astronaut Office Extravehicular Activity Branch, while maintaining a position as Lead ESA Astronaut in Houston. Nicollier retired from ESA in April 2007.
He was appointed full professor of Spatial Technology at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne on 28 March 2007.
He is an expert board member of Swiss Space Systems.
Nicollier was born September 2, 1944. After graduating from the Gymnase de Lausanne (high school) in Lausanne in 1962, he studied physics at the University of Lausanne and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1970. He then worked as a graduate scientist from 1970 to 1973 at the Institute of Astronomy at the University and at the Geneva Observatory, before obtaining a Master of Science degree in astrophysics from the University of Geneva in 1975. In parallel, he became a Swiss Air Force pilot in 1966, where he holds a commission as captain, and has logged 5,600 hours flying time, including 4,000 hours in jet aircraft. Later, in 1988, he graduated as a test pilot from the Empire Test Pilot's School in Boscombe Down, United Kingdom.
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