ESA Astronaut Thomas Reiter

ESA Astronaut Thomas Reiter

Born 23 May 1958, in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Thomas is married and has two sons. He enjoys fencing, badminton, cooking and playing the guitar. Thomas Reiter joined the Executive Board of DLR on 1 October 2007 and is responsible for space research and development.

Education

Thomas Reiter has a Masters Degree in Aerospace Technology. He graduated from Goethe-High School in Neu-Isenburg near Frankfurt, Germany in June 1977, from the German Armed Forces University in Neubiberg, near Munich, in December 1982 and from the British Empire Test Pilots School (ETPS) in Boscombe Down, England, in December 1992.

Experience

After completion of military jet training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, USA, Thomas Reiter flew the Alpha-Jet in a fighter-bomber squadron based in Oldenburg, Germany. He was involved in the development of computerized mission planning systems and became a flightoperations officer and deputy squadron commander. After completing the test-pilot training Class 2 at the German Flight Test Centre in Manching during 1990, Reiter was involved in several flight test projects and conversion training on the Tornado the following year. Reiter attended the Class 1 test pilot training at ETPS, Boscombe Down, England in 1992. His flight experience includes more than 2300 hours in military combat jet aircraft of more than 15 types.

Thomas Reiter was also involved in European Space Agency (ESA) studies of a manned space vehicle (Hermes) and development of scientific equipment for the Columbus module, one of Europe's main contributions to the International Space Station.

ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter during his second EVA as part of the Euromir 95 mission

In 1992, he was selected to join ESA's Astronaut Corps, based at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. After completing basic training, Reiter was selected for the Euromir 95 mission and started training at TsPK (Cosmonauts Training Centre) in Star City near Moscow in August 1993, preparing for onboardengineer tasks, extra-vehicular activities and operations of the Soyuz transportation system. The Euromir 95 experiment training was organized and mainly carried out at EAC.

In March 1995, he was assigned as on-board engineer for the Euromir 95 mission, a recordbreaking 179 days mission (3 September 1995 until 29 February 1996) with two EVAs.

Between October 1996 and July 1997, Reiter underwent training on Soyuz-TM spacecraft operations for de-docking, atmospheric re-entry and landing. He was awarded the Russian 'Soyuz Return Commander' certificate, which qualifies him to command a three-person Soyuz capsule during its return from space. Furthermore, he performed collateral duties in the ERA-team of ESA, which is developing the European Robotic Arm and its ground based testand mission control equipment.

Colonel Thomas Reiter in 2005 with the Tornado fighter-bomber squadron in Jever

During his most recent German Air Force (Luftwaffe) posting, from September 1997 to March 1999, Thomas Reiter was commander of the ‘Friesland’ Tornado fighter-bomber squadron 38 based in Jever.

After his return to ESA, he worked with the ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) team and also collaborated on the ERA robotics project. From June 1999 to March 2000, he continued his training for the Russian segments of the International Space Station (ISS), at the Russian cosmonaut training centre in Star City. Between September 2001 and September 2004, Reiter was part of the project team responsible for preparing the European ISS research module, Columbus.

From April 2001, Reiter prepared himself, over the course of several ISS training phases, for his deployment in the first European long-term mission to the International Space Station. The Astrolab mission started on 4 July 2006 and lasted until 22 December 2006. Reiter assumed the role of Second ISS Flight Engineer while he was a member of the Expedition 13 and 14 teams.

On 4 August 2006, Reiter broke the  record for time spent in space by an astronaut from Western Europe, previously standing at 209 days and held by his French colleague Jean-Pierre Haigneré. After his mission, Reiter was one of the very few astronauts or cosmonauts in the world to have spent a combined total of more than a year in outer space. He flew back to Earth in December 2006 aboard space shuttle flight STS-116.

Since 1 October 2007, Thomas Reiter has been a member of the Board of Management of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), responsible for space travel research and development. On 20 March 2009, Dr Franz Josef Jung, the German Defence Minister, promoted Reiter to the Luftwaffe rank of Brigadier General.