Claude Nicollier | |
---|---|
![]() Nicollier in 1999 | |
Born | Vevey, Switzerland | 2 September 1944
Status | Retired from ESA |
Nationality | Swiss |
Occupation(s) | Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland |
Space career | |
ESA astronaut | |
Rank | ![]() |
Time in space | 42d 12h 05min |
Selection | 1978 ESA Group |
Missions | STS-46, STS-61, STS-75, STS-103 |
Mission insignia | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Claude Nicollier (born 2 September 1944) 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.[1]
He was an expert board member of Swiss Space Systems, until the company's dissolution.[2]