Frank De Winne

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Frank De Winne
Frank De Winne
Country: BelgiumBelgium Belgium
Organization: European space agencyESA ESA
selected on October 19, 1998
Calls: 2 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		October 30, 2002
Landing of the
last space flight: 		December 1, 2009
Time in space: 198d 17h 34min
retired on August 1, 2012
Space flights

Frank Luc, Vicomte De Winne (born April 25, 1961 in Ghent , Belgium ) is a former astronaut , the second Belgian in space and the first Belgian ISS commander .

Military training

De Winne began his training at the Royal Military Academy in 1979, where he trained as a civil engineer (specializing in communications) until 1984.

In 1986, 25-year-old De Winne obtained his pilot's license. In the further course of his career with the Belgian Air Force , he received training in the Mirage , F-16 and Tornado weapon systems .

In 1997 he was given the "Joe Bill Dryden Semper Viper Award" for a successful landing maneuver with total failure of the engine of his F-16 and without causing damage to man or machine. He was the first non-American to receive this award.

In 1998 he took over command of squadron 349 in the Belgian air force base Kleine-Brogel .

In 1999 he took part in the NATO-led Kosovo war as commander of the Belgian-Dutch task force .

Space flights

Frank de Winne at a performance in 2013

De Winne flew on October 30, 2002 as a flight engineer with Soyuz TMA-1 to the International Space Station (ISS) and returned to Earth on November 10 with Soyuz TM-34 .

On May 27, 2009 De Winne started as a flight engineer on ISS Expedition 20 with Soyuz TMA-15 to the ISS. He spent a total of 185 days on the ISS. When part of the crew was replaced in October 2009, the crew name was changed to ISS Expedition 21 . After the previous commander of the ISS, Gennadi Padalka , had ended his stay on the space station, De Winne was the commander of the ISS since October 11, 2009, the first Western European in this function. On December 1, 2009, De Winne landed in Kazakhstan with the Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft. His stay on board the ISS was called OasISS. Since August 1st, 2012 he has been the head of the European Astronaut Center in Cologne .

Mission list

No mission function Flight date Flight duration
1 Soyuz TMA-1 / Soyuz TM-34 Flight engineer 2002 10d 20h 53min
2 Soyuz TMA-15 Flight engineer / ISS commander 2009 187d 20h 42min

Honors

On December 20, 2002, De Winne was raised to the nobility by the Belgian King Albert II , his title being that of Viscount (French) or Burggraaf (Dutch). The first Belgian in space, Dirk Frimout , received the same title .

During a visit by the Belgian royal couple to the European Astronaut Center in Cologne in March 2009, De Winne was promoted to Brigadier General of the Belgian Armed Forces by King Albert II .

Private

De Winne is married and has three children from his first marriage. His second wife, Lena Clarke, is a Russian aerospace engineer who worked for Mir and ISS missions. Under the title My Countdown , she published a book that describes De Winnes space flight from the point of view of the wife who counts the days until landing.

See also

Web links

Commons : Frank De Winne  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ First European commander of the International Space Station Message from ESA dated October 11, 2009, accessed October 11, 2009
  2. ↑ Katherine Trinidad, Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters: NASA Assigns Space Station Crews, Updates Expedition Numbering. NASA, November 21, 2008, accessed November 21, 2008 .
  3. ↑ Clara Moskowitz: For Astronauts' Spouses, the Countdown Begins After Launch. Space.com, November 15, 2010, accessed May 22, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME De Winne, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES De Winne, Frank Luc
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian spaceman
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Ghent , Belgium