List of German astronauts explained

The following is a list of German astronauts who have traveled into space, sorted by date of first flight.

As of 2024, twelve Germans have been in space. The first German, and only East German, in space was Sigmund Jähn in 1978. Three astronauts – Ulf Merbold, Reinhard Furrer and Ernst Messerschmid – represented West Germany during the time of divided Germany.

Merbold made two other spaceflights after Germany was reunified in 1990. He is the only German to have been in space three times. Thomas Reiter, Alexander Gerst, and Matthias Maurer are the only Germans to have made long-term spaceflights.

List

Image	Name	Mission	Mission start	Mission duration	Space station	Mission objectives
	data-sort-value=Jaehn	Sigmund Jähn	Soyuz 31 / Soyuz 29		days	Salyut 6	Scientific experiments in Salyut 6
	Ulf Merbold	STS-9		days		Scientific experiments in the Spacelab Module
	STS-42		days		Scientific experiments in the Spacelab Module
	Soyuz TM-20 / Soyuz TM-19		days	Mir
	data-sort-value=Furrer	Reinhard Furrer	STS-61-A (D1)		days		Scientific experiments in the Spacelab Module, deployment of the Global Low Orbiting Message Relay Satellite (GLOMR)
	data-sort-value=Messerschmid	Ernst Messerschmid	STS-61-A (D1)		days		Scientific experiments in the Spacelab Module, deployment of GLOMR
	data-sort-value=Flade	Klaus-Dietrich Flade	Soyuz TM-14 / Soyuz TM-13		days	Mir
	data-sort-value=Schlegel rowspan=2	Hans Schlegel	STS-55 (D2)		days		Scientific experiments in the Spacelab Module
	STS-122		days	ISS	Installation of the Columbus Orbital Facility
	data-sort-value=Walter	Ulrich Walter	STS-55 (D2)		days		Scientific experiments in the Spacelab Module
	data-sort-value=Reiter rowspan=2	Thomas Reiter	Soyuz TM-22 / Euromir 95		days	Mir
	STS-121 / Expedition 13 / Expedition 14 / STS-116		days	ISS
	data-sort-value=Ewald	Reinhold Ewald	Soyuz TM-25 / Soyuz TM-24		days	Mir
	data-sort-value=Thiele	Gerhard Thiele	STS-99		days		Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, positionig of several satellites
	data-sort-value=Gerst rowspan=2	Alexander Gerst	Soyuz TMA-13M / Expedition 40 / Expedition 41		days	ISS
	Soyuz MS-09 / Expedition 56 / Expedition 57		days	ISS
	data-sort-value=Maurer	Matthias Maurer	SpaceX Crew-3 / Expedition 66 / Expedition 67		days	ISS

See also

• German space programme

External links

• German Astronauts at DLR
• Colleen Anderson: German Space Exploration and International Cooperation, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, 17 October 2016.