Andromède Mission Summary

Mission summary of the Andromede mission which saw ESA's first female astronaut to visit the ISS. This programme covers the whole mission from launch to landing and includes descriptions of the experiments she carried out whilst on board the ISS. There is an A-roll with split audio and English commentary and this is completmented by a B-roll with clean international sound.

In October 2001, French ESA astronaut Claudie Haigneré spent eight days on board the International Space Station, entering it via the Russian door, so to speak the negotiations for this flight had been made between the French government and Rosavia-Cosmos (the Russian Aviation and Space Agency).

At the top of the three-stage Soyuz launcher, which is about 45 metres high, is the protective fairing which houses the Soyuz spacecraft for the astronauts.
Claudie's training had taken place in Star City near Moscow. However, the Cosmodrome from where she was the launched into space is located in Baikonur in Kazakhstan, and it is also here that the final days of preparation were spent.

The crew was made of three persons: the commander, in the centre, a flight mission engineer on the left - on this mission, Claudie Haigneré had this responsibility - and on the right, another flight engineer, or a cosmonaut who is a scientist and will carry out an on-board experimental programme.