Gerhard Paul Julius Thiele (born September 2, 1953) is a German

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and a former ESA

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 ...

. He is the father of

Die Astronautin Die Astronautin is a private German human spaceflight program with the goal of sending the first German woman into space by 2023 via a short-duration flight to the International Space Station. The program was launched by a German private initiat ...

candidate Insa Thiele-Eich.

Early life and education

Born in

Heidenheim an der Brenz Heidenheim an der Brenz, or just Heidenheim (; Swabian: ''Hoidna'' or ''Hoirna''), is a town in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is located near the border with Bavaria, approximately 17 km south of Aalen and 33 km north of ...

, he attended the Friedrich-Schiller-Gymnasium in Ludwigsburg. After school he volunteered for the

German Navy The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified ''Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mari ...

, serving as Operations/Weapons Officer aboard fast patrol boats. In 1976 he began to study physics at the University of Munich and the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

. He received his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1985 in

environmental science Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geog ...

Career

From 1986 to 1987 he was a postdoc at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. In 1988 he was selected for 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 ...

and began basic training at the DLR. In 1990 he was selected as a backup crew member for the German

spacelab Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier ...

mission D-2 (

STS-55 STS-55, or Deutschland 2 (D-2), was the 55th overall flight of the NASA Space Shuttle and the 14th flight of Shuttle ''Columbia''. This flight was a multinational Spacelab flight involving 88 experiments from eleven different nations. The exper ...

). During the mission, which took part in April 1993, he worked in the Payload Operations Control Center of DLR at

Oberpfaffenhofen Oberpfaffenhofen is a village that is part of the municipality of Weßling in the district of Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany. It is located about from the city center of Munich. Village The village is home to the Oberpfaffenhofen Airport and ...

as the alternate payload specialist. In 1996, he was selected by the German Space Agency to receive Space Shuttle Mission Specialist training at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

. In August 1998, he joined the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

(ESA), into which the German national team was integrated. In 2000, he completed his only spaceflight, the STS-99 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. During 2003 and 2004, he trained in Russia as the backup for

André Kuipers André Kuipers (; born 5 October 1958) is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He became the second Dutch citizen, third Dutch-born and fifth Dutch-speaking astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on 19 April 2004. Kuipers returned to Earth a ...

on the Soyuz TMA-4 mission. He retired from the European Astronaut Corps in October 2005. As from 1 April 2010 he became Resident Fellow with the European Space Policy Institute in Vienna, Austria. Gerhard Thiele has been appointed as the head of ESA's Human Spaceflight and Operations Strategic Planning and Outreach office (HSO-K) effective 1 July 2013.

References

ESA profile page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thiele, Gerhard 1953 births Living people German astronauts Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg Space Shuttle program astronauts