Ulf Merbold

German Astronaut and Physician

Ulf Merbold served as an ESA astronaut from 1977 to 1998. The second German in space, he took part in the maiden flight of the European Spacelab laboratory in 1983, joined the crew of the International Microgravity Laboratory mission (IML-1) in 1992, and became the first ESA astronaut to visit the Russian space station Mir in 1994. To this day, he remains the only German to have flown into space three times. Although retired, he continues to serve ESA as an adviser.

Ulf Merbold was one of ESA’s pioneering astronauts. In April 1977, he was among more than 2,000 applicants who applied to the European Space Agency as a scientist astronaut for the inaugural flight of the ESA Spacelab programme.

Career as an ESA Astronaut

On 22 December 1977, ESA introduced Merbold as one of its four Spacelab astronaut candidates. He was subsequently selected as one of the three finalists and, on 1 July 1978, began astronaut training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. On 20 September 1982, he was assigned as a Payload Specialist for the mission crew.

On 28 November 1983, Ulf Merbold became the first non-American astronaut to fly aboard a US Space Shuttle. During the STS-9/Spacelab-1 mission, he and his five American colleagues carried out a research programme comprising 73 experiments aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia and the integrated Spacelab module. The mission concluded on 8 December 1983.

Following this mission, Merbold became involved in preparations for Germany’s first Spacelab mission, D1. During the STS-61A mission (30 October to 6 November 1985), he served as backup astronaut to his German colleagues Reinhard Furrer and Ernst Messerschmid. Throughout the flight, he supported the crew as Capsule Communicator from the mission control centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, Bavaria.

In 1986, Merbold transferred to ESA’s centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. At the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), he contributed to planning work for Columbus, Europe’s laboratory module for the International Space Station.

After the decision had been taken to fly a second German Spacelab mission, Merbold became Head of the Astronaut Office at the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DFVLR, now the German Aerospace Center, DLR) in Cologne on 1 September 1987. His task was to prepare the newly selected German astronauts for the D2 mission.

However, after being nominated on 11 January 1989 as a candidate for the International Microgravity Laboratory mission (IML-1), he relinquished this position and began mission training in April 1989. On 19 January 1991, he was officially appointed Payload Specialist for the IML-1 flight crew.

Aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, Ulf Merbold embarked on his second journey into space on 22 January 1992. During the STS-42/IML-1 mission, the seven-member crew conducted an extensive programme of materials science and life sciences research before returning to Earth on 30 January 1992.

Following this flight, Merbold once again became involved in preparations for Germany’s second Spacelab mission. During STS-55 (26 April to 6 May 1993), he supported German astronauts Ulrich Walter and Hans Schlegel as Science Coordinator at the Oberpfaffenhofen control centre.

On 7 July 1993, ESA selected Ulf Merbold for another spaceflight. Together with Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque, he began basic training for the Euromir-94 mission in August 1993 at the Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City near Moscow. On 4 July 1994, he was assigned to the flight crew and subsequently underwent mission-specific training as a Research Cosmonaut until 9 September 1994.

On 3 October 1994, Ulf Merbold launched into space for the third time aboard Soyuz TM-20. As part of the Euromir-94 mission, he became the first ESA astronaut to visit the Russian space station Mir, where he carried out 28 scientific experiments. After what was then the longest space mission ever completed by an ESA astronaut, lasting 32 days, Merbold returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-19 on 4 November 1994.

Following the mission, he became Head of the Astronaut Division at the European Astronaut Centre in January 1995.

Merbold retired from active astronaut service on 30 August 1998 but remained ESA’s Chief Astronaut until the end of October 1999.

He then returned to ESTEC in Noordwijk, where he worked as Utilisation Promotion Manager within ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Microgravity. In this role, he promoted the scientific and industrial opportunities offered by the International Space Station among organisations across ESA member states.

Since 30 July 2004, Ulf Merbold has been retired, although he continues to support ESA as an adviser.
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Source: European Space Agency (ESA)

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