Ernst Messerschmid
German - (DLR)
Retired
Date of Birth: May 21, 1945
Age: 79
Ernst Willi Messerschmid (born May 21, 1945) is a German physicist and former astronaut. From 1978 to 1982, he worked at the DFVLR (the precursor of the DLR) in the Institute of Communications Technology in Oberpfaffenhofen on space-borne communications. In 1983, he was selected as one of the astronauts for the first German Spacelab mission D-1. He flew as payload specialist on STS-61-A in 1985, spending over 168 hours in space.
Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-61-A
National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of AmericaKennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Oct. 30, 1985, 5 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:
STS-61-A was the twenty-second space shuttle flight and ninth for Space Shuttle Challenger. It was a scientific spacelab mission funded entirely by West Germany. The payload operations were controlled from the German Space Operations Center as opposed to the regular NASA centers.
Low Earth OrbitThe German Aerospace Center is Germany's Center for aerospace, energy, and transportation research. Their main work is as a contributor to the ESA. They have done work both in tandem with the US on Space Shuttle and the ISS, and also with other European Nations on missions like Space Lab and Mars Express.
Zhuque-2E
Guangchuan-01 & 02
Launch Area 96 - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China2 satellites for testing and demonstrating LEO communication satellite constellation technologies. First flight of the enhanced Zhuque-2.
Falcon 9
Starlink Group 12-1
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USAA batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Electron
Ice AIS Baby (Kinéis 11-15)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New ZealandThird batch of five satellites for the French Kinéis IoT constellation designed to operate with 25 nanosatellites of 30 kg each.
Long March 2
SuperView Neo 2-03 & 04
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of ChinaCommercial Synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites built by CAST for China Siwei Survey and Mapping Technology Co. Ltd.
Electron
Leidos-2
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 (Launch Area 0 C) - Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USASecond sub-orbital launch of Electron of the Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) program for Leidos and Dynetics.
