ESA Astronaut Thomas Reiter

ESA Astronaut Thomas Reiter, from Germany, during a training session inside the Soyuz TMA simulator at the Gagarin Training Center, also known as Zviezdny Gorodok ("Star City"), near Moscow, as part of his preparation for future long-duration flights to the International Space Station (ISS). He wears the Sokol pressurised suit worn by the crew during launch and return phases.

A military test-pilot, Thomas Reiter was selected to join the European Astronaut Corps in 1992. Selected for ESA's Euromir 95 mission, he flew this record-breaking 179-day mission on the Mir space station from 3 September 1995 to 29 February 1996. He performed some 40 European scientific experiments, participated in the maintenance of the station and carried out two spacewalks. His next assignment is the Astrolab mission with the next Shuttle launch (STS-121).