Two ESA Directors get renewed terms

In the course of its meeting at the Agency’s headquarters in Paris on 10
and 11 October, the ESA Council, on the recommendation of the Director
General, Antonio Rodot, renewed the contracts of two of the Directors:
Jörg Feustel-Büechl and Claudio Mastracci.

Jörg Feustel-Büechl, 61, of German nationality, has been Director of
Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity since April 1994 and with ESA since
1986, when he started as Director for Space Transportation Systems. His
contract was renewed for the two years from 1 November 2002 to 31 October
2004.

Mr Feustel-Büechl remains in charge of organising the European
contribution to the International Space Station and related programmes,
including the Columbus orbital laboratory, the automated transfer vehicle,
the European Astronaut Centre and the microgravity (life and material
sciences) programmes.

Claudio Mastracci, 61, of Italian nationality, took up duty as ESA
Director of Applications in 1998. His contract has now been renewed for
the two years from 1 December 2002 to 30 November 2004.

In the field of telecommunications, Mr Mastracci remains responsible for
the ARTES programme covering technology development, feasibility studies
and system development for future space telecommunication programmes such
as multimedia systems, mobile communication and large platform missions.
In satellite navigation, he is responsible for EGNOS, which makes
significant improvements to the present GPS and GLONASS systems and for
GalileoSat — ESA’s contribution to the European Union’s Galileo
initiative — the first worldwide civil satellite navigation system.

For further information, please contact:

ESA Communication Department

Media Relations Office

Tel: +33(0)1.53.69.7155

Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690