German astronauts
A special website presenting all the German astronauts that have flown in space, and the latest German astronaut candidate – Alexander Gerst. In 1978, Sigmund Jähn, a citizen of the German Democratic Republic, became the first German to travel to space. In addition to Jähn, this astronaut special contains brief biographies of Ulf Merbold, Reinhard Furrer, Ernst Messerschmid, Ulrich Walter, Klaus-Dietrich Flade, Reinhold Ewald, Gerhard Thiele and Thomas Reiter. And finally, Hans Schlegel, the German astronaut to fly most recently; he flew on STS-122, the mission during which Columbus was attached to the International Space Station, in 2008.