Umberto Guidoni

ESA astronaut Umberto Guidoni on his STS-100 mission.

On 21 April 2001, ESA astronaut Umberto Guidoni first set foot, or hand, on the International Space Station, making him the first European to visit and work the orbiting outpost. Since then, the Space Station has grown immensely, as have the number of Europeans to have worked in it, together with the science experiments performed in orbit.

When Umberto arrived, he flew on the Space Shuttle and docked with a Space Station that consisted of just three modules: Unity, Zarya and Zvezda. Since then, 19 European astronauts of nine different nationalities have followed in his foot or hand steps. The next ESA astronaut to fly to the International Space Station, Thomas Pesquet will catch a ride on the SpaceX Dragon and return to this place in space that has grown by three laboratory modules, an airlock, two connecting nodes and an observatory and is now the size of a football field.

Europe contributes around 8% of the running costs of the International Space Station, but has built a large part of the structure, including ESA’s Columbus laboratory, the Cupola observatory, the Tranquillity and Harmony modules, as well as the computers that collect data and provide navigation, communications and operations for the Russian segment.

ESA also provided the Space Station with supplies and boosted its orbit through five Automated Transfer Vehicles, the heaviest and most versatile Space Station supply ferry. This programme evolved into the European Service Modules that ESA is supplying for NASA’s Artemis programme, taking humans forward to the Moon and thus continuing the exemplary international collaboration beyond Earth’s orbit.