Klaus-Dietrich Flade (born 23 August 1952) is a German pilot and former

German Aerospace Center The German Aerospace Center (german: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

who visited the

Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

space station in 1992 aboard the

Soyuz TM-14 Soyuz TM-14 was the 14th expedition to the Mir space station.The full mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-TM14.htm It included an astronaut from Germany, and was the first Russian Soyuz mission after t ...

mission, returning to Earth a week later aboard

Soyuz TM-13 Soyuz TM-13 was the 13th expedition to Mir space station. Lasting from October 1991 to March 1992, the mission included cosmonauts from Austria and the soon-to-be independent region of Kazakhstan, as the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991. ...

Biography

Born in

Büdesheim Büdesheim is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, he joined the

German Air Force The German Air Force (german: Luftwaffe, lit=air weapon or air arm, ) is the aerial warfare branch of the , the armed forces of Germany. The German Air Force (as part of the ''Bundeswehr'') was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War a ...

after school. Educated initially as an airplane engineer, he studied aerospace engineering at

Bundeswehr University Munich 200px, Entrance to the university Bundeswehr University Munich (german: Universität der Bundeswehr München, UniBw München) is one of two research universities in Germany at federal level that both were founded in 1973 as part of the German Ar ...

from 1976 to 1980. Afterwards he became a pilot. He trained as a test pilot from 1988 to 1989. In October 1990, he was selected as part of the

German astronaut team The German astronaut team was established in 1987. Before the establishment of the team, then- West German astronauts were selected for single missions, or as part of the European Space Agency's manned spaceflight activities. East Germany had its ...

for the

Euromir Euromir was an international space programme in the 1990s. Between the Russian Federal Space Agency and the European Space Agency (ESA), it would bring European astronauts to the Mir space station. Euromir was part of a drive in the early 1990 ...

'92 flight. After two years of training, he flew as a research cosmonaut on

in March 1992. After his spaceflight, he returned to the German Air Force. He is now test pilot at

Airbus Industrie Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

External links

Spacefacts biography of Klaus-Dietrich FladeProfile on German Air Force website
1952 births Living people German astronauts Bundeswehr University Munich alumni German Air Force pilots Mir crew members Military personnel from Rhineland-Palatinate {{astronaut-stub