posted 01-25-2007 08:54 AM            

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Léopold Eyharts will remain two months, this autumn, on board international space Station (ISS).

INFORMATION is not yet official but Jean-Jacques Dordain, the general manager of the European space Agency (ESA), confirmed day before yesterday evening in margin of the meeting of the chiefs of the agencies partners of the International Space Station (ISS): the French astronaut, Léopold Eyharts will take seat, next October, on board the Discovery shuttle which must forward the scientific module European Columbus to the ISS.

Former fighter pilot, 48 years old, Léopold Eyharts will be the first French with going in space since Philippe Perrin, in June 2002. It will be also its second mission, nine years after having remained three weeks on Mir, the old Russian orbiting station, in February 1998.

This time Léopold Eyharts will remain two months in orbit, with nearly 400 km of altitude. "It will era charged to ensure the startup of Columbus", specified M. Dordain. A second European astronaut, the German Hans Schlegel, will also take part in this mission STS-122, considered to be crucial for space Europe.

A Pharaonic building site

Of a cost estimated at 880 million euros, supported mainly by Germany (41%), Italy (25%) and France (21%), the Columbus laboratory will make it possible to realize uninterrupted, and either only step by step, of the scientific experiments in microgravity in varied fields (biology, dynamics of the fluids, sciences of materials).

After having known many misadventures (it had at the origin being launched in 1992...), this imposing module of 13 tons, will make it possible to raise the ESA with the row of "joint owner" with whole share of the ISS, at the sides of the Americans, the Russians, the Canadians, then of the Japanese whose Kibo laboratory will be fastened at the station in December 2007.

The meeting of the branch managers also made it possible to endorse the calendar of assembly of the ISS, particularly tight this year. This Pharaonic building site must be finished in 2010, date on which the American shuttles will cease flying. The station is designed to function at least until 2015 and must be used to prepare the future missions inhabited towards the Moon and Mars.

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