Claudie (André-Deshays) Haigneré (; born 13 May 1957) is a French doctor, politician and former
astronaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...
. She was the
first female astronaut of the
French space agency CNES and the
European Space Agency (ESA)
The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European ...
to go to space.
Background and training
Born in
Le Creusot
Le Creusot () is a Communes of France, commune and industrial town in the Saône-et-Loire Departments of France, department, Regions of France, region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, eastern France.
The inhabitants are known as Creusotins. Formerl ...
, Claudie Haigneré studied medicine at the Faculté de Médecine (
Paris-Cochin) and Faculté des Sciences (
Paris-VII). In addition to her medical degree, she went on to obtain certificates in biology and
sports medicine
Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. Although most sports teams have employed team physicians for many years, it is only since the ...
(1981),
aviation medicine
Aviation medicine, also called flight medicine or aerospace medicine, is a preventive or occupational medicine in which the patients/subjects are pilots, aircrews, or astronauts. The specialty strives to treat or prevent conditions to which air ...
and
space medicine
Space Medicine is a subspecialty of Emergency Medicine (Fellowship Training Pathway) which evolved from the Aerospace Medicine specialty. Space Medicine is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of medical conditions that would limit success in ...
(1982), and
rheumatology
Rheumatology () is a branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and management of disorders whose common feature is inflammation in the bones, muscles, joints, and internal organs. Rheumatology covers more than 100 different complex diseases, c ...
(1984).
In 1986, she received a diploma in the
biomechanics
Biomechanics is the study of the structure, function and motion of the mechanical aspects of biological systems, at any level from whole organisms to Organ (anatomy), organs, Cell (biology), cells and cell organelles, using the methods of mechani ...
and
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
of
movement and received her doctorates in
rheumatology
Rheumatology () is a branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and management of disorders whose common feature is inflammation in the bones, muscles, joints, and internal organs. Rheumatology covers more than 100 different complex diseases, c ...
(1984) and
neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...
(1992).
Space career

In 1985, France's space center selected only six men and one woman—Claudie Haigneré—to go to space. She first served as a back-up crew member for the 1993
Mir ''Altaïr'' mission, in which her future husband
Jean-Pierre Haigneré participated. The
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
135268 Haigneré is named in their combined honour.
In 1994, Claudie Haigneré began training at the
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC; Russian: Центр подготовки космонавтов имени Ю. А. Гагарина) is a Russian training facility responsible for tra ...
in
Star City, Russia, for the Franco-Russian
Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia or Cassiopea may refer to:
Greek mythology
* Cassiopeia (mother of Andromeda), queen of Aethiopia and mother of Andromeda
* Cassiopeia (wife of Phoenix), wife of Phoenix, king of Phoenicia
* Cassiopeia, wife of Epaphus, king of Egy ...
mission and learned Russian during her time there. On 17 August 1996, she became the first French woman to go to space when she and two Russian cosmonauts, commander
Valery Korzun
Valery Grigoryevich Korzun (, born 5 March 1953) is a former Russian cosmonaut. He has been in space twice totalling 381 days. He has also conducted four career spacewalks.
Personal
He is a Russian Air Force Colonel and cosmonaut of Yuri Gagari ...
and flight engineer
Aleksandr Kaleri
Aleksandr "Sasha" Yuriyevich Kaleri (; born in Jūrmala, Latvia on 13 May 1956) is a former Russian cosmonaut and veteran of extended stays on the Mir Space Station and the International Space Station (ISS). Kaleri has most recently been in space ...
, launched into space aboard the Soyuz TM-24.
While on the mission, Haigneré visited the
Mir
''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...
space station
A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitat ...
for 16 days, where she conducted comprehensive experiments in the fields of
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
and
developmental biology
Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of Regeneration (biology), regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and di ...
,
fluid physics
Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids (liquids, gases, and plasma (physics), plasmas) and the forces on them.
Originally applied to water (hydromechanics), it found applications in a wide range of discipl ...
and technology.
In 1999, Haigneré commanded a Soyuz capsule during reentry and became the first woman qualified to do so.
As the flight engineer on Soyuz TM-33 in 2001, she became the first European woman to visit the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
.
After the mission, Haigneré continued her involvement in space science by attending scientific workshops and conferences. She also contributed to data analysis and constructions for the scientific programs of future projects.
She eventually retired from ESA on 18 June 2002.
Political career
Following her career as an astronaut, Haigneré entered French politics in
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin (; born 3 August 1948) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005 under President Jacques Chirac.
He resigned after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Un ...
's government. She was minister delegate for Research and New Technologies from 2002 to 2004 and succeeded
Noëlle Lenoir as minister delegate for European Affairs from 2004 to 2005.
Organizational involvement
During her spaceflight in 1996, Haigneré agreed to a request from
Dominique Baudis
Dominique Baudis (; 14 April 1947 – 10 April 2014) was the French Defender of Rights (ombudsman). Formerly a journalist, politician and mayor of Toulouse, he had been a member of Liberal Democracy and later of the leading centre-right Union ...
, mayor of
Toulouse
Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
, that she be the honorary patron of the
Cité de l’espace scientific discovery centre. She attended the opening of the centre with Baudis on 27 June 1997. As of January 2025, she still holds this role.
In 2009, Haigneré was named as the founding director of
Universcience. Universcience brought together Europe's largest science museum, the
Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie
The Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (, "City of Science and Industry", abbreviated la CSI) or simply CSI is a large science museum in Europe. Located in the Parc de la Villette in Paris, France, it is one of the three dozen French Cultural ...
, with the
Palais de la Découverte
Palais () may refer to:
* Dance hall, popularly a ''palais de danse'', in the 1950s and 1960s in the UK
* ''Palais'', French for palace
**Grand Palais, the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées
**Petit Palais, an art museum in Paris
* Palais River in t ...
museum. At that time, she was an advisor to the Director General of the ESA. Haigneré held the role of Director of Universcience until 2015, at which point she resumed serving as a special advisor to ESA's
Director General
A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...
.
In 2018, Haigneré agreed to chair the jury of the
DStv Eutelsat Star Awards, which is an annual pan-African student competition in which students write an essay or create a poster focusing on science and technology fields as a source of inspiration to unlock opportunities for Africa. The essays and posters will then be judged by an international panel of industry experts, government and academic world members, based on accuracy, creativity, originality and innovation.
Haigneré's acceptance of this assignment marked the first time a woman has served on the panel for the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards.
Honours

Haigneré received many honors during her career. She received the Chevalier of the
Légion d'Honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
as well as the Chevalier of the
Ordre National du Mérite
The (; ) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's establishment was twofold: to replace the large number of ...
. To recognize her outstanding involvement in the Franco-Russian space cooperation, she received the Russian
Order of Friendship
The Order of Friendship (, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds and efforts have been aimed at ...
.
She also received the Russian
Medal For Merit in Space Exploration and Medal for Personal Valour.
Haigneré is also an honorary member of the Société Française de Médecine Aéronautique et Spatiale and the Association Aéronautique et Astronautique de France (AAAF). She also holds membership in the
International Academy of Astronautics
The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) is a Paris-based non-government association for the field of astronautics. It was founded in Stockholm, Sweden) on August 16, 1960, by Dr. Theodore von Kármán. It was recognised by the United Nation ...
(IAA) and of the Académie de l'Air et de l'Espace (ANAE).
There are streets named after her in the French towns of
Claira,
Franqueville-Saint-Pierre,
Marignane
Marignane (; ) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southern France.
Geography
It is a component of the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, and the largest suburb of the city of Marsei ...
,
Mudaison
Mudaison (; ) is a commune in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in southern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Hérault department
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or ...
and
Valliquerville.
References
;Other sources
* Flitner, Bettina: ''Frauen mit Visionen – 48 Europäerinnen (Women with visions – 48 Europeans)''. With texts by
Alice Schwarzer
Alice Sophie Schwarzer (born 3 December 1942) is a German journalist and prominent feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal '' EMMA''. Beginning in France, she became a forerunner of feminist positions against anti-ab ...
. Munich: Knesebeck, 2004. , p. 108–111
External links
ESA profile pageThe Andromede mission on the ESA website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haignere, Claudie
1957 births
Living people
People from Le Creusot
Politicians of the French Fifth Republic
French spationauts
Space medicine doctors
Women astronauts
Physician astronauts
ESA astronauts
Astronaut-politicians
Commanders of the Legion of Honour
Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite
Recipients of the Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration"
European amateur radio operators
Amateur radio women
20th-century French women scientists
20th-century French women politicians
Women government ministers of France
Mir crew members
Recipients of the Order of Courage (Russia)