Claudie HaignerŽ and crew validated for French-Russian Andromde mission
The prime and back-up crews for the French-Russian Andromde mission were officially
validated Thursday 11 October 2001.
French astronaut Claudie HaignerŽ is now set to embark on this latest CNES human spaceflight
mission in ten days’ time, on which she will become the first European to fly to the International
Space Station.
The Russian MVK Commission of State has officially cleared the prime and back-up crews for the
French-Russian Andromde mission, after nine months of training at Star City, near Moscow.
Official validation of the crews confirmed the degree of proficiency they have acquired in training
and gave them a clean bill of health.
ESA astronaut Claudie HaignerŽ will therefore be embarking 21 October 2001 from Baikonur
Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on a ten-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Her
crewmates are Russian cosmonauts Victor Afanassiev, who will be flight commander, and flight
engineer Konstantin Kozeev. All three were already in Baikonur to test the Soyuz spacecraft for
the mission.
Most of the equipment for scientific experiments during the Andromde mission has already
been ferried to the ISS by two Progress spacecraft launched on 21 August and 15 September.
Claudie HaignerŽ, the first Frenchwoman in space in 1996 under her maiden name Claudie
AndrŽ-Deshays, is a member of the European Astronaut Corps based in Cologne, Germany. The
Andromde mission, decided under an agreement between CNES and the Russian space agency
Rosaviacosmos, will be Claudie HaignerŽ’s second spaceflight. She will thus become the first
European astronaut to fly to the ISS.
For further information:
CNES Press Relations
Phone +33 (0)1 44 76 76 87
Fax +33 (0)1 44 76 78 16
