ESA Astronaut Boards the ISS

There are now three permanent crewmembers aboard the International Space Station for the first time since May 2003, the European Space Agency said.

ESA Astronaut Thomas Reiter of Germany moved from NASA’s Discovery Space Shuttle into the ISS Thursday, joining Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA flight engineer Jeffrey Williams.

Reiter will now spend five to seven months on board as second flight engineer. The Paris-based ESA said he is the first non-U.S., non-Russian astronaut to be given such an assignment and will be succeeded by more ESA, Japanese or Canadian astronauts.

Reiter is to become the first ESA astronaut to perform a spacewalk. In addition, he will conduct a series of experiments devised by European scientists for ESA’s Astrolab Mission. The research will include investigations in the field of physiology, psychology, microbiology, plasma physics and radiation dosimetry.