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Astronauts

Exploring our Solar System is one of humankind's most exciting adventures. ESA selected its first astronauts in 1978 for the 1983 Spacelab mission on NASA's Space Shuttle. Here you'll find more about our current astronauts – the class of 2009.

Samantha Cristoforetti

Samantha welcomes a familiar face to Crew-4

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins has been named the fourth and final member of Crew-4 and she’s no stranger to Samantha Cristoforetti who worked with her underwater during NEEMO 23.

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Matthias Maurer

Cosmic Kiss begins as Crew-3 arrive at the Space Station

The spacecraft carrying ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and his NASA astronaut colleagues Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron docked to the International Space Station at 00:32 CET Friday, 12 November (23:32 GMT Thursday, 11 November), marking the official start of Matthias's first mission ‘Cosmic Kiss’.

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Matthias Maurer

Watch Crew-3 arrive at the Space Station

Coverage of ESA astronaut Matthias’s Maurer’s journey to the International Space Station continues, with docking now scheduled for 00:23 CET Friday, 12 November (23:33 GMT Thursday, 11 November) and streaming live on NASA TV.

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Matthias Maurer

Crew-3 from suit-up to orbit

ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer will be launched to the International Space Station at 02:03 GMT/03:03 CET Thursday, 11 November as part of Crew-3. Follow the action from suit-up to Space Station welcoming ceremony live on ESA Web TV 2 and on Twitter @esaspaceflight.

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Thomas Pesquet

100 more days of science and operations in space for Thomas

On Thomas Pesquet’s 100th day in space for his Alpha mission we did an overview of all his activities on the International Space Station, 100 days later, let’s look at what he has been up to up there on the second half of his mission. Many of the experiments are repetitions from the first 100 […]

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Thomas Pesquet

Mission Alpha: the return home in Crew Dragon Endeavour

After almost 200 days in space it is time to return to planet Earth for ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide and NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur. Today at 16:45 GMT (17:45 CET) they will say farewell to their colleagues, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos astronauts Pyotr Dubrov and […]

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Astronauts

New dates for Crew-3 launch and Crew-2 return

Update: The earliest possible opportunity for Crew-2 to undock from the Space Station is now Monday, 8 November, 19:05 GMT/20:05 CET for a splashdown on Tuesday, around 03:33 GMT/04:33 CET. Next launch opportunity for Crew-3 with Matthias Maurer is planned for Thursday, 11 November, 02:03 GMT/03:03 CET.

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Matthias Maurer

Crew-3 to launch no earlier than 7 November

Due to a minor medical issue involving one of its crew members, the launch of Crew-3 is now set for no earlier than 03:36 GMT/04:36 CET, Sunday, 7 November. The issue is not a medical emergency and not related to COVID-19.

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