Gerhard Thiele
Encyclopedia
Dr. Gerhard Paul Julius Thiele (born September 2, 1953) is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...

 and a former ESA astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

.

Early life and education

Born in Heidenheim an der Brenz, he attended the Friedrich-Schiller-Gymnasium in Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg urban district with about 87,000 inhabitants...

. After school he volunteered for the German Navy
German Navy
The German Navy is the navy of Germany and is part of the unified Bundeswehr .The German Navy traces its roots back to the Imperial Fleet of the revolutionary era of 1848 – 52 and more directly to the Prussian Navy, which later evolved into the Northern German Federal Navy...

, serving as Operations/Weapons Officer aboard fast patrol boats. In 1976 he began to study physics at the University of Munich and the University of Heidelberg. He received his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1985 in Environmental Physics.

Career

From 1986 to 1987 he was a postdoc at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

. In 1988 he was selected for the German astronaut team
German astronaut team
The German astronaut team was established in 1987, until it became part of the European Astronaut Corps in 1998. Before the establishment of the team German astronauts were selected for single missions, or as part of the ESA manned spaceflight activities....

 and began basic training at the DLR
German Aerospace Center
The 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 1990 he was selected as a backup crew member for the German spacelab
Spacelab
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory consisted of multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier and other related hardware housed in the Shuttle's cargo bay...

 mission D-2 (STS-55
STS-55
-Backup crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass:**Orbiter landing with payload: **Payload: *Perigee: *Apogee: *Inclination: 28.5°*Period: 90.7 min-Mission highlights:...

). During the mission, which took part in April 1993, he worked in the Payload Operations Control Center of DLR at Oberpfaffenhofen
Oberpfaffenhofen
Oberpfaffenhofen 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....

 as the alternate payload specialist.

STS-99

In 1996, he was selected by the German Space Agency to receive Space Shuttle Mission Specialist training at NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

. In August 1998, he joined the European Space Agency
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

, into which the German national team was integrated. In 2000, he completed his only spaceflight, the STS-99
STS-99
STS-99 was a Space Shuttle Endeavour mission, that launched on 11 February 2000 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The primary objective of the mission was the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission project.-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass:...

 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.

During 2003 and 2004, he trained in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 as the backup for André Kuipers
André Kuipers
André Kuipers is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He officially became the second Dutch and the third Dutch-born astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on April 19, 2004. Kuipers returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-3 11 days later.Kuipers is scheduled to become the first Dutch astronaut to...

 on the Soyuz TMA-4
Soyuz TMA-4
Soyuz TMA-4 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. It was launched on April 19, 2004 from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Gennady Padalka from Russia, Michael Fincke from the USA and André Kuipers from the Netherlands were flown to the International...

 mission.

He retired from the European Astronaut Corps in October 2005.

External links

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