ESA astronaut Léopold Eyharts

ESA astronaut Léopold Eyharts, from France. A test pilot in the French Air Force, Léopold Eyharts has logged 3,500 hours flying time on over 50 types of aircraft, before being selected as an astronaut by the French National Space Agency (CNES) in 1990. He was then assigned to support the Hermes space plane programme and became one of the test pilots and engineer in charge of the CNES parabolic flight programme. Léopold Eyharts underwent two short-duration training sessions at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow in 1991 and 1993, and took part in an evaluation of Russian 'Buran' Space Shuttle training in Moscow, where he flew in the Tupolev 154 Buran in-flight simulator. In July 1994, he was assigned as a back-up crewmember for the Franco-Russian Cassiopée space flight, flown in August 1996, and in December 1996, he was selected for the CNES follow-on scientific space Pégase mission to Mir, from January 29 to February 19, 1998. In August 1998, Léopold Eyharts joined ESA's Astronaut Corps at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. He was assigned to train at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, and entered the 1998 Mission Specialist Class. Léopold Eyharts received technical assignments within NASA Astronaut Office at JSC. He is currently working in the ISS Operations Branch as a section chief for ISS systems, software and on board information technology.