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Official DLR Biography
Hans Schlegel
BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: �berlingen, Germany, 3 August 1951.
EDUCATION: Graduated from Aachen University in 1979 with a Diploma in Physics.
FAMILY: Married, four children.
RECREATIONAL INTERESTS: Sports, reading.
EXPERIENCE: Following his studies, Hans Schlegel spent six years as a scientist at the Physikalisches Institute of Aachen University, and two years as a specialist in non-destructive methodology in the research and development department of a company in Reutlingen.
From 1988 to 1990, Schlegel underwent Basic Astronaut Training at the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR). He started D-2 specific training in 1990 and flew for the first time, as Payload Specialist, during the D-2 mission. This second Spacelab mission under German management, successfully took place from 26 April to 6 May, 1993 on board the US Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-55).
Hans Schlegel went to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow, in August 1995, to train for the German-Russian Mir 97 mission. Selected in crew 2, he served as Crew Interface Co-ordinator responsible for onboard-to-ground communication during the flight (10 February - 2 March 1997).
He returned to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre for additional training as Board engineer 2, between June 1997 and January 1998.
Schlegel has published works in the field of semiconductor physics and his areas of research include Experimental Solid State Physics, Optics and Infrared Spectroscopy.
He held a private pilot's licence, including instrument rating and aerobatics, and was holder of a German Science Diver Licence.
Schlegel entered the Mission Specialist Class at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA, in August 1998. Hans Schlegel was one of a number of astronauts from European national space programmes being integrated into ESA's single European astronaut corps. ESA astronauts will be involved in the assembly and on-board operations of the International Space Station, a multinational programme that will place a permanently inhabited research facility in Earth orbit.
SPECIAL HONOURS: Hans Schlegel has been awarded the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation, as well as the German Verdienst Kreuz 1. Klasse.
Manned seven crew. Carried German Spacelab-D2. Payloads: Spacelab D-2 with long module, unique support structure (USS), and Reaction Kinetics in Glass Melts (RKGM) getaway special, Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) II.
Mir Expedition EO-23. Soyuz TM-25 docked with Mir at the forward port on February 12 at 15:51:13 GMT.
Following a mission that seemed to consist of an endless series of collisions, breakdowns, fires, and other emergencies, the EO-23 handed over the station and on August 14 entered Soyuz TM-25 landed in Kazakstan at 12:17 UTC, 170 km SE of Dzezkazgan. The Soyuz landing rockets failed to fire on touchdown, giving one of the roughest landings experienced by a returning Mir crew.