6. PERSONALITIES AND AWARDS 6.1. ESA ASTRONAUT NAMED TO FLY ON SPACE SHUTTLE”’
Claude Nicollier, an ESA astronaut presently assigned to NASA, has been named to fly as mission specialist on STS-46. During their seven-day mission, the STS-46 crew will deploy the ESA platform Eureca, a free flying platform designed primarily for microgravity experiments and developed under MBB-ERNO responsiblity. This Eureca first mission carries 5 multi-user facilities serving some 45 Principal Investigators from the Material Sciences and Life Sciences disciplines. The platform will be retrieved from its orbit 8 months after its launch. In addition, the STS-46 crew will demonstrate the Tethered Satellite System (TSS) designed by Aeritalia for the Italian Space Agency. The Shuttle-attached TSS will provide for the deployment, operation and retrieval of data gathering probes, through the use of a tether system which provides constant physical and electrical connection between the probe and the Shuttle. Other crew members will be named later. Nicollier, making his first flight, will be the first ESA astronaut to fly as a mission specialist. Under a special agreement between NASA and ESA, he was assigned to receive mission specialist training at NASA in 1980. He was born on 2 September 1944, in Vevey, Switzerland.
6.2. ESA DIRECTOR OF TELECOMMUNlCATlONS’2’ The ESA Council, at its meeting on 13 and 14 December 1989, appointed Mr Rene Collette to the post of Director of Telecommunications Programmes, on the recommendation of the ESA Director General, Professor Reimar Lust. Mr Collette will replace Mr Giorgio Salvatori, who is retiring, from 1 January 1990. The new Director of Telecommunications is of Belgian nationality and joined ESA in 1964. Since 1977, he has headed the Department of Telecommunications Programmes and, in this capacity, was responsible for the-development of OTS, the Orbital Test Satellite, ESA’s first experimental telecommunications satellite developed in the ’70s. Mr Collette was responsible for the development of the ECS, the European Communication Satellite series leased to Eutelsat, and for the MARECS satellites leased to Inmarsat. These provide maritime communications services to ships over the Atantic and Pacific Oceans. He also supervised the development of the Olympus satellite which became operational last October. (‘)From ESA News Release No. 41,2 October 1989. (*)From ESA News Rekase No. 49,14 December 1989.
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