Latest Léopold Eyharts Stories

Ten past and present ESA astronauts will be at the ILA international aerospace show at Berlin's Schoenefeld on Friday 11 June. At the same time, ESA will continue its presence on its shared stand.ESA will participate in ILA's "˜Spaceflight: Yesterday"“Today"“Tomorrow' workshop on Friday, starting at 12:00 CEST in the Space Hall (Raumfahrt-Halle). Former ESA astronauts Ulf Merbold and Ernst Messerschmid will represent the previous generation of space flyers and start the session. Current...

ESA astronaut Frank De Winne is set to become the first European Commander of the International Space Station.De Winne, from Belgium, will fly to the Station in a Soyuz spacecraft in May 2009 with Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, which will bring the total number of crew on the ISS up to six for the first time.For the first four months De Winne will be an International Space Station (ISS) Flight Engineer as a member of the Expedition 20...

This story was updated at 12:28 a.m. March 27 EDT. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's shuttle Endeavour and its seven-astronaut crew returned to Earth safely late Wednesday, hitting the finish line of a construction marathon at the International Space Station (ISS). The shuttle touched down at its NASA runway here at the Kennedy Space Center at about 8:39 p.m. EDT (0039 March 27 GMT), announcing its arrival with twin sonic booms as it descended through the dark Florida sky....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Shuttle Endeavour pulled away from the international space station on Monday and headed for home after a heartfelt farewell between the two crews.It culminated 12 days of shared work, the longest mission ever of its kind.The 10 space travelers performed a record-tying five spacewalks, put together a space station robot and provided a new Japanese compartment "” and resident "” for the orbiting complex."In my mind, in my view, it's been an extraordinary...

HOUSTON - The seven astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle Endeavour will cast off from the International Space Station (ISS) late Monday after a record-long stay at the orbiting laboratory. Shuttle commander Dominic Gorie and his crew will undock from the station at 7:56 p.m. EDT (2356 GMT) tonight, wrapping up a packed 12 days of construction to deliver a Canadian-built robot and the first module of Japan's massive Kibo laboratory. "I sort of looked at this flight sort of like a...

WASHINGTON - The seven-astronaut crew of NASA's shuttle Endeavour is gearing up for the longest construction mission ever aimed at the International Space Station (ISS), where spaceflyers will add a Japanese-built room and a Canadian robot to the growing orbiting laboratory. Endeavour's STS-123 crew is on track for a March 11 launch toward the station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to begin a marathon construction flight expected to last about 16 days. "We are...

ESA astronaut Léopold Eyharts has activated the first experiment inside the European Columbus laboratory. The WAICO experiment, which investigates the effect of gravity on plant root growth, has started inside the module's Biolab facility.WAICO, short for Waving and Coiling of Arabidopsis Roots at Different g-levels, looks at the growth of two types of Arabidopsis seed. In all, two different sets of seeds "“ wild type and genetically modified type - will be allowed to grow under varying...

This story was updated at 10:09 a.m. EST. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The shuttle Atlantis and seven astronauts landed safely back on Earth Wednesday after a successful mission to deliver Europe's first permanent orbital laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS). With shuttle commander Stephen Frick at the helm, Atlantis swooped out of the morning sky over NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) here and loosed two sonorous sonic booms before touching down at 9:07 a.m. EST...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle Atlantis are converting their spacecraft back into a 100-ton glider today as they gear up for a planned Wednesday landing.Shuttle commander Stephen Frick and pilot Alan Poindexter will fire Atlantis' thrusters and test vital systems to ensure their spacecraft is ready to once again fly through the Earth's atmosphere."We're looking forward to getting home, and we're headed home now," Frick said after Atlantis undocked from the...

HOUSTON — Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are forging ahead with the activation of the orbiting laboratory's new European research module. The joint 10-astronaut crew of the space station and NASA's docked Atlantis orbiter are squeezing in extra work today commission the European Columbus lab before the shuttle departs the ISS on Monday. "We're very far advanced in the activation and commission of Columbus," said Alan Thirkettle, station program...