April 25 – Happy Birthday, Frank De Winne

nPostednon April 25, 2014

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Fornmany years, the only astronauts in the world were either American ornRussian.

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nAndnthe Russian astronauts weren’t even called “astronauts” – theynwere cosmonauts.

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nButnthese days, with the International Space Station orbiting the Earth,navailable for experiments, 35 countries have sent up astronauts intonspace. This includes astronauts working for ESA, the European SpacenAgency…and those astronauts include two from Belgium…and thensecond of those two Belgian astronauts is today’s birthday boy!

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nBornnin Ghent, Belgium (in the northern, Flemish region of Belgium), onnthis date in 1961, Frank De Winne became the first ESA astronaut toncommand a space mission. He’s been to space twice. During his 2002nmission, which lasted about 12 days, De Winne was able to carry outn23 different experiments. The second mission is the one that De Winnencommanded; in 2009, De Winne and five other astro/cosmonauts went tonthe ISS for 186 days. It was the 21st long-durationnmission.

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nDenWinne is currently the Head of the ESA’s European Astronaut Centre innCologne / Koln, Germany. This is where ESA astronauts are trained. n

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nDidnyou know…?

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nRussian is currently the only nation capable of launching astronauts inton orbit. Of course, the U.S. used to have this capability, but then last Space Shuttle was retired in 2011. Russia’s Soyuz rocket is then most frequently used and most reliable launch vehicle in the world,n so far. The first unmanned Soyuz mission was launched in 1966. Inn 1967 Soyuz 1 launched; both Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11 had re-entryn problems, and in total four cosmonauts died. However, Soyuz 2n through 10 and 12 through 66 were all successfully completed withoutn fatalities.

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nNASAn (the U.S. space agency) is working on a new heavy-lift launchn vehicle called Space Launch System.

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nSon far, seven people from the U.S., South Africa, the U.K., and Canadan have become the first space tourists. They paid between 20 and 40n million dollars each for the pleasures of training hard, riskingn their lives, and floating in outer space, with the best worlds of the world!

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This view of the world from the ISS also
shows a Soyuz vehicle docked, ready to
return to the Earth when needed. There is
at least one Soyuz docked at the ISS
at all times, in case it is needed for emergency
evacuation.

n(Bynthe way, one of the American space tourists—and so far the onlynfemale space tourist—is from Iran, and another is from Hungary.)

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nAlsonon this date: