Ernst Willi Messerschmid (born May 21, 1945) is a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
physicist and former astronaut.
Born in
ReutlingenReutlingen is a city in southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of April 2008, it has a population of 109,828....
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, Messerschmid finished the
Technisches Gymnasium in
StuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
in 1965. After two years of military service he studied physics at the University of Tübingen and
BonnThe University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in 1818 the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number of undergraduate and graduate programs in a range of subjects. Its library holds...
, receiving diploma degree in 1972 and doctorate in 1976. From 1970 to 1975 he was also visiting scientist at the
CERNThe European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , , is the world's largest particle physics laboratory, situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border, established in 1954...
in
GenevaGeneva, is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie...
, working on proton beams in accelerators and plasmas.
Ernst Willi Messerschmid (born May 21, 1945) is a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
physicist and former astronaut.
Born in
ReutlingenReutlingen is a city in southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of April 2008, it has a population of 109,828....
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, Messerschmid finished the
Technisches Gymnasium in
StuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
in 1965. After two years of military service he studied physics at the University of Tübingen and
BonnThe University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in 1818 the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number of undergraduate and graduate programs in a range of subjects. Its library holds...
, receiving diploma degree in 1972 and doctorate in 1976. From 1970 to 1975 he was also visiting scientist at the
CERNThe European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , , is the world's largest particle physics laboratory, situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border, established in 1954...
in
GenevaGeneva, is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie...
, working on proton beams in accelerators and plasmas. From 1975 to 1976 he worked at the
University of FreiburgThe University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Hapsburg dynasty as the second university in...
and the
Brookhaven National LaboratoryBrookhaven National Laboratory , is a United States national laboratory located in Upton, New York on Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base...
(New York), In 1977, he joined
DESYThe DESY is the biggest German research center for particle physics, with sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen....
in
HamburgHamburg is the second-largest city in Germany and the sixth-largest city in the European Union...
to work on the beam optics of the PETRA storage ring.
From 1978 to 1982, he worked at the DFVLR (the precursor of the
DLRThe German Aerospace Center is the national centre for aerospace, energy and transportation research of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has multiple locations throughout Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne. It is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in...
) in the Institute of Communications Technology in
OberpfaffenhofenOberpfaffenhofen is a village which is part of the municipality of Weßling in the district of Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany. It is 20 kilometers from the city center of Munich....
on space-borne communications. In 1983, he was selected as one of the astronauts for the first German
SpacelabSpacelab was a reusable laboratory flown into space on the Space Shuttle. It allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity in Earth orbit...
mission D-1. He flew as payload specialist on
STS-61-ASTS-61-A was the 22nd Space Shuttle mission. It was a scientific Spacelab mission funded and controlled by West Germany - hence the non-NASA name D-1 . It was also the last successful mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger...
in 1985, spending over 168 hours in space.
After his spaceflight he became a professor at the
Institut für Raumfahrtsysteme at the
University of StuttgartThe University of Stuttgart is a university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized in 10 faculties....
. Since 1999, he is head of the European Astronaut Center in
CologneCologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants...
. In January 2005, he returned to the University of Stuttgart teaching on subjects of Astronautics and Space Stations.
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