The following is a list of German astronauts who have traveled into space, sorted by date of first flight. As of 2018, eleven Germans have been in space. The first German, and only

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, in space was

Sigmund Jähn Sigmund Werner Paul Jähn (; 13 February 1937 – 21 September 2019) was a German cosmonaut and pilot who in 1978 became the first German to fly into space as part of the Soviet Union's Interkosmos programme. Early life Jähn was born on 13 Fe ...

in 1978. Three astronauts –

Ulf Merbold Ulf Dietrich Merbold (born June 20, 1941) is a German physicist and astronaut who flew to space three times, becoming the first West German citizen in space and the first non-American to fly on a NASA spacecraft. Merbold flew on two Space Shu ...

, Reinhard Furrer and

Ernst Messerschmid Ernst Willi Messerschmid (born 21 May 1945) is a German physicist and former astronaut. Born in Reutlingen, Germany, Messerschmid finished the ''Technisches Gymnasium'' in Stuttgart in 1965. After two years of military service he studied physics ...

– represented

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 ...

during the time of divided Germany. Merbold made two other spaceflights after Germany was reunified in 1990; thus, he is the only German to have been in space three times.

Thomas Reiter Thomas Arthur Reiter (born 23 May 1958 in Frankfurt, West Germany) is a retired European astronaut and is a Brigadier General in the German Air Force currently working as ESA Interagency Coordinator and Advisor to the Director General at the ...

and Alexander Gerst are the only Germans to have made long-term spaceflights. {, class="wikitable sortable" ! Image ! width="125", Name ! Mission ! width="115", Mission start ! Mission duration ! Space station ! class="unsortable" , Mission objectives , - , , data-sort-value=Jaehn ,

, Soyuz 31 /

Soyuz 29 Soyuz 29 (russian: Союз 29, ''Union 29'') was a 1978 crewed Soviet space mission to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the fifth mission, the fourth successful docking, and the second long-duration crew for the orbiting station. Commander Vla ...

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Salyut 6 Salyut 6 (russian: Салют-6; lit. Salute 6), DOS-5, was a Soviet orbital space station, the eighth station of the Salyut programme. It was launched on 29 September 1977 by a Proton rocket. Salyut 6 was the first space station to recei ...

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STS-42 STS-42 was a NASA Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' mission with the Spacelab module. Liftoff was originally scheduled for 8:45 EST (13:45 UTC) on January 22, 1992, but the launch was delayed due to weather constraints. ''Discovery'' successfully ...

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Soyuz TM-20 Soyuz TM-20 was the twentieth expedition to the Russian Space Station Mir. It launched Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Viktorenko, Yelena Kondakova, and German cosmonaut Ulf Merbold. Crew Mission highlights The flight carried 10 kg of equi ...

Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz TM-19 was a crewed Soyuz spaceflight to Mir. It launched on 1 July 1994, at 12:24:50 UTC. Crew Mission highlights Commander Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Musabayev, both spaceflight rookies, were to have been launched with veteran cos ...

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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 ...

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Klaus-Dietrich Flade Klaus-Dietrich Flade (born 23 August 1952) is a German pilot and former German Aerospace Center astronaut who visited the Mir space station in 1992 aboard the Soyuz TM-14 mission, returning to Earth a week later aboard Soyuz TM-13. Biography Bo ...

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 ...

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. ...

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Hans Schlegel Hans Wilhelm Schlegel ( Überlingen, 3 August 1951) is a German physicist, a former ESA astronaut, and a veteran of two NASA Space Shuttle missions. Early life and education Schlegel, born and raised in Germany, graduated as an international e ...

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STS-122 STS-122 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS), flown by the . STS-122 marked the 24th shuttle mission to the ISS, and the 121st Space Shuttle flight overall. The mission was also referred to as ISS-1E by the ...

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ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...

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Ulrich Walter Ulrich Hans Walter (born February 9, 1954) is a German physicist, engineer and a former DFVLR astronaut. Education Walter was born in Iserlohn. After finishing secondary school there and two years in the Bundeswehr, he studied physics at the U ...

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Soyuz TM-22 Soyuz TM-22 was a Soyuz spaceflight to the Soviet space station Mir.The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-tm22.htm It launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome Launch Pad 1 on September 3, 1995. After two d ...

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STS-121 STS-121 was a 2006 NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by . The main purposes of the mission were to test new safety and repair techniques introduced following the ''Columbia'' disaster of February 2003 as w ...

Expedition 13 Expedition 13 was the 13th expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), and launched at 02:30 UTC on 30 March 2006. The expedition used the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft, which stayed at the station for the duration of the expedition for emerge ...

Expedition 14 Expedition 14 was the 14th expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). Commander Michael López-Alegría, and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006, 04:09 UTC, aboard Soyuz TMA-9. They joi ...

STS-116 STS-116 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle '' Discovery''. ''Discovery'' lifted off on 9 December 2006 at 20:47:35 EST. A previous launch attempt on 7 December had been canceled due to cl ...

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Reinhold Ewald Reinhold Ewald (born 18 December 1956) is a German physicist and ESA astronaut. Biography Born in Mönchengladbach, West Germany, he received a Diploma in experimental physics from the University of Cologne in 1983 and a Ph.D. in 1986, with a m ...

Soyuz TM-25 Soyuz TM-25 was a crewed Soyuz spaceflight, which launched on February 10, 1997.The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-TM-25.htm It transported Russian cosmonauts Vasily Tsibliyev, Aleksandr Lazutkin, ...

Soyuz TM-24 Soyuz TM-24 was the 27th expedition to Mir. Soyuz TM-24 carried a crew of three. The crew consisted of Cosmonauts Valery Korzun and Aleksandr Kaleri, and the first French woman in space, Claudie André-Deshays. They joined American astronaut Shan ...

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Gerhard Thiele Gerhard Paul Julius Thiele (born September 2, 1953) is a German physicist and a former ESA astronaut. He is the father of Die Astronautin candidate Insa Thiele-Eich. Early life and education Born in Heidenheim an der Brenz, he attended the Frie ...

STS-99 STS-99 was a Space Shuttle mission using ''Endeavour'', that launched on 11 February 2000 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The primary objective of the mission was the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) project. This was also the last s ...

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Shuttle Radar Topography Mission The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is an international research effort that obtained digital elevation models on a near-global scale from 56°S to 60°N, to generate the most complete high-resolution digital topographic database of Ea ...

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Soyuz TMA-13M Soyuz TMA-13M was a 2014 flight to the International Space Station. It transported three members of the Expedition 40 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-13M was the 122nd flight of a Soyuz spacecraft since 1967, and the 39th Soyuz miss ...

Expedition 40 Expedition 40 was the 40th expedition to the International Space Station. A portion of the Expedition 39 crew transferred to Expedition 40 while the remainder of the crew launched on May 28, 2014 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Upon ach ...

Expedition 41 Expedition 41 was the 41st expedition to the International Space Station. It began on 10 September 2014 with the undocking of Soyuz TMA-12M, returning the crew of Expedition 40 Expedition 40 was the 40th expedition to the International Space St ...

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Soyuz MS-09 Soyuz MS-09 was a Soyuz spaceflight which launched on 6 June 2018. It transported three members of the Expedition 56/ 57 crew to the International Space Station (ISS). is the 138th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consisted of a Russian c ...

Expedition 56 Expedition 56 was the 56th expedition to the International Space Station, which began on June 3, 2018, upon the departure of Soyuz MS-07. Andrew Feustel, Oleg Artemyev, and Richard R. Arnold were transferred from Expedition 55, with Andrew Feust ...

Expedition 57 Expedition 57 was the 57th expedition to the International Space Station, which began on October 4, 2018, upon the departure of Soyuz MS-08. History Soyuz MS-09 crew, Alexander Gerst, Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, and Sergey Prokopyev, since ...

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Matthias Maurer Matthias Josef Maurer (born 18 March 1970) is a German European Space Agency astronaut and Materials scientist, who was selected in 2015 to take part in space training. Biography Maurer graduated from in Sankt Wendel, Saarland, in 1989.) He ...

SpaceX Crew-3 SpaceX Crew-3 was the fourth operational flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the third overall crewed orbital flight of the Commercial Crew Program. The mission successfully launched on 11 November 2021 at 02:03:31 UTC to the International ...

Expedition 66 Expedition 66 was the 66th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The mission began after the departure of Soyuz MS-18 on 17 October 2021. It was commanded by European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, the fourth Euro ...

Expedition 67 Expedition 67 was the 67th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began upon the departure of Soyuz MS-19 on 30 March 2022, with NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn taking over as ISS commander. Initially, the e ...

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External links

German Astronauts
at DLR * Colleen Anderson
''German Space Exploration and International Cooperation''
American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, 17 October 2016.

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Astronauts 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 ...

astronauts 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 ...

See also

External links