Claude Nicollier
Claude Nicollier
Claude Nicollieris the first astronaut from Switzerland, and has flown on four Space Shuttle missions. His first spaceflightwas in 1992, and his final spaceflightwas in 1999. He took part in two servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope. During his final spaceflight he participated in a spacewalk, becoming the first European Space Agency astronaut to do so during a Space Shuttle mission. In 2000 he was assigned to the Astronaut Office Extravehicular Activity Branch, while maintaining a position as Lead...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAstronaut
Date of Birth2 September 1944
CityVevey, Switzerland
CountryUnited States of America
We have the Fine Guidance Sensors, one of which we will exchange out of three. Another one we changed on the last servicing mission, and on the fourth servicing mission in 2003 or 2004, the third one will be exchanged.
On one hand, to be able to go from one direction in the sky to study such an object to another direction to study another object, and on the other hand to be able to maintain accurately the position in space.
I feel very privileged to be part of this mission, and when my nomination was announced, I was really very, very happy to be selected for this mission.
We developed already, before the first servicing mission, this has been further developed on the second servicing mission and we refined it this time, all the terminology.
The objects that are of moderate energy, like our sun or most of the stars that we see in the night sky with the naked eye, are objects in which relatively moderate energy processes are taking place.
My name was on the list very early after these announcements were made through the newspapers in Europe.
Hubble is very close to my heart, and going back to Hubble, because I was there once already in 1993, is really a great privilege for me.
The future infrared space telescope will cover that area in a much more efficient manner.
Then, much later, my next dream was to become an astronaut, and I was fortunate to realize that dream, also.
I would say the most help I got was from my dad. My dad is a civil engineer in Switzerland; he's 90 years old now, so he's no longer active as a civil engineer, but still a very active person.
In general, the objects in the universe that are very high-energy objects, or the processes that are high-energy processes, will radiate more in the short wavelength range towards the gamma rays or the x-rays.
My first dream as a child was to become a pilot. My second dream was to become an astronomer, and I pursued in parallel efforts and studies in these two areas.
The Next Generation Space Telescope, which will be located much further away from the Earth than the Hubble Space Telescope presently is, will also explore the infrared part of the spectrum.
As far as the radio waves part of the spectrum, we can do these adequately from the ground because the atmosphere is basically transparent to our radio waves.