European Space Agency graduates 6 new astronauts

November 22nd 2010

Graduating from Astronaut Candidates (ASCANS) to Astronauts today, six new members joined the ESA’s Astronaut Corps.

The ESA ASCANS prior to accepting their certifications

The ceremony took place at the European Astronaut Center, the heart of human spaceflight in Europe, amongst the instructors, medical teams and administrative staff that have supported their training over the past months.

6 New Astronauts:

Samantha Cristoforetti from Italy
Alexander Gerst from Germany
Andreas Mogensen from Denmark
Luca Parmitano from Italy
Timothy Peake from the UK
Thomas Pesquet from France.

6 New ESA Astronauts

Best wishes to the new graduates and don’t forget to enjoy the ride!

Visit http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMRFLIRPGG_index_1.html#subhead1

Further Articles:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11811658 – English

http://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/inhalt.raumschiff-europa-von-kuenzelsau-ins-weltall.24f242ec-245f-4156-8e8a-daed3817c36f.html – German

http://nachrichten.t-online.de/esa-deutscher-schliesst-astronauten-ausbildung-ab/id_43509554/index – German

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/11/22/EU-astronauts-complete-first-training/UPI-73341290465659/

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Graduation_Of_Europe_New_Astronauts_999.html

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A Master at last!

Three weeks has passed and sporadic posting has ensued.

Lets recap!

August 14-22

Travels to San Francisco, NASA Ames, Las Vegas and Monterey Bay.

Brought in as guest expert for the ISU Space Studies Program 2009 @ NASA Ames to assist with Team Project Access Mars – the use of martian caves as potential spaces for human habitats .

Tahir @ NASA Ames Research Center - Mountain View, California, USA

Travelled around SFO and Monterey Bay – even managed to sneak off to Las Vegas for some entertainment!

Las Vegas!!!

August 23-27

Masters’09 Final Presentations

Each student attended an internship this summer – somewhere around the world – statistics include:

Masters09 Internship Split

August 28-30

With no more academic commitments I dashed off to Paris to pick up my Mom who has come for graduation.

August 31

Masters 09 Class Graduation – 49 M.Sc granted

Finally, an M.Sc in Space Management – yehhaww!

Master!

A huge accomplishment for all 49 graduates of the 2009 M.Sc ISU program. For me, this is indeed a time I have waited for many years, having first heard about ISU in 1999 from my junior high teacher. 10 years later, with the guidance of many including Chris Hadfield and Eric Choi, my adventure took my to the far reaches of the world – physically and emotionally – connecting with people all over the world working towards the same objective – space and space for the people. Thank you to all those who have supported me throughout my experience – its been my pleasure to have shared this experience here with you via Terra++.

Farewell, ISU!

Sept 1 – Sept 8

Baden- Baden, Interlaken & Swiss Alps, Geneva, Cote D’Azur

Baden Baden Spa

Tahir in the Swiss Alps

Monte Carlo in style!

Sept 8 – Sept 10

London, England

Sept 10

A return, indefinitely till the job search pans out, to my home in Calgary.

A HUGE thank you to all of you readers who have followed my ISU journey over 15 months ago – I’ve received comments from all over the world, young and old, and with 5000 hits strong, I assure you this is only the beginning.

As for whats next for Terra++? You tell me! Suggestions are welcome, and your feedback most appreciate for this, my first blogging experience.

A good old cheers, and Howdy, as I land back in to Calgary.

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Parabolic Flight – T-Minus 5 days!

Hello folks,

Some of you might be asking – what is a parabolic flight? Here’s your answer!

In 5 days time, I will be fortunate enough to experience an extended period of weightlessness or “zero-gravity”. Parabolic flights are one way astronauts, cosmonauts, taikonauts and space flight participants train and acclimatize to the space environment – where there is no gravitational force constraining them.

Parabolic flights are the only way any of the general public can have this experience!

Parabolic = based on a parabola, parabolic function

f(x) = sin(x)+1

Flight = aircraft

Parabolic Fight Profile - A300 (c) Novaspace

Zero-G Flight

Airbus A300, Boeing 747, KC-135 – these are some of the largest airliners in the world that have been “hollowed” out (seats & luggage compartments removed, padding added). Various operators of these flights include NASA, Zero-G Adventures and NovaSpace, who I will be flying with.

On Saturday, I will be leaving for Bordeaux, the home base of NovaSpace. Upon the kind invitation of Dr. Gilles Clement (Centre Nationale de Research Scientifique), I will be taking part in a series of tests of the Iris – Image Reversal In Space experiment. The Iris experiment, as I mentioned in posts previous, is an educational payload that has been designed, tested, implemented and analyzed entirely by students. This is a first of its kind for an experiment on the International Space Station (ISS). These students are those from the ISU whom Canadian Astronaut Bob Thirsk has interacted with over the past 16 months. Dr. Thirsk will be flying to the International Space Station on Soyuz TMA-15, May 27th 2009 to commence his stay on the ISS for 5.5 months during Expedition 20 & 21 351.1 km ( as of May 5 2009) above the Earth’s surface.

ISS Expedition 20

Expedition 21

I am proud to have 2 friends on Expedition 21 – Canadian Astronaut Bob Thirsk and NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott. God Speed friends!

05/27/09 — Soyuz TMA-15/19S launch (with Canadian Astronaut Bob Thirsk)
05/29/09 — Soyuz TMA-15/19S docking (FGB nadir) and first Six-person crew on ISS
06/13/09 — STS-127/Endeavour/2J/A launch – JEM EF, ELM-ES, ICC-VLD (with Canadian Astronaut Julie Payette)
08/06/09 — STS 128 – ISS Expedition 21 (NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott)
NASA Space Operations Reference

Photos of Iris student testing, astronaut testing, parabolic testing and more will follow.

I would like to thank the following organizations for their support of this opportunity:

Cheers!

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