Reinhold Ewald, Astronaute - ESA, Président du jury
Born in Mönchengladbach, Germany, he received diploma in experimental physics from the University of Cologne in 1983 and the Ph.D. in 1986, with a minor degree in human physiology.
In 1990, he was selected to the German astronaut team, training for the Mir '92 mission. He was the backup of Klaus-Dietrich Flade for the Soyuz TM-14 mission. In 1995 he began training for the second German Mir mission. In February 1997 he flew to the space station Mir with Soyuz TM-25, spending 20 days in space. He performed experiments in biomedical and material sciences, and carried out operational tests in preparation for the International Space Station.
In February 1999, he joined the European Astronaut Corps at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany.
From 2006 to 2011, Ewald headed the Flight Operations Division within ESA’s ISS Operations department at the Columbus Control Centre near Munich. In this role, he directed a team of ESA Mission Directors managing the Columbus laboratory delivery flight in February 2008 and the Columbus science activities thereafter.
He served as an Advisor to the Head of Director General’s Cabinet at ESA’s headquarters in Paris from 2011 to 2014, followed by a position at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, promoting the scientific achievements of the ESA research programme on the International Space Station.
In September 2015 he was appointed as Professor for Astronautics and Space Stations at the Institute of Space Systems (IRS) at the University of Stuttgart as the successor to Ernst Messerschmid.[1]
He is married and has three children. He enjoys reading and spending time with his family, and performs with an amateur theatre group. His main sports are soccer and he holds a black belt in karate.
Michel Tognini, Astronaute – ESA
Michel Tognini enrolled at the French Air Force Academy, Salon de Provence, France, graduating with an engineering degree in 1973. Tognini attended the Empire Test Pilots School, Boscombe Down, United Kingdom, in 1982, and the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Defense Nationale in 1993-94.
Tognini served from 1974-1981, as an operational fighter pilot in French Air Force, flying SMB2 and Mirage F1 aircraft. Tognini was then posted to the Cazaux Flight Test Center, France, initially as a test pilot and subsequently as chief test pilot. Tognini has 4500 flight hours on 80 types of aircraft (mainly fighter aircraft including MIG 25, TUPOLEV 154, LIGHTNING MK 3 and MK 5, METEOR, and F 104
Tognini made his first space flight on board the Soyuz TM-15, TM-14 (July 27 to August 10, 1992). He linked up with Mir 1, spent 14 days carrying out a program of joint Soviet-French experiments. Tognini flew aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-93 (July 22-27, 1999), as a Mission Specialist, to assist in the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory,. Mission duration was 5 days.
On May 1, 2003, Brigadier General Tognini was appointed Head of the Astronaut Division at the European Astronaut Center (EAC), Cologne, Germany. Then on March 1, 2005, he was appointed Head of the European Astronaut Centre.He came back to France in November 2011, and became the president of the GAMA ( Groupe Aéronautique du Ministere de l'Air); he continued to participate to studies linked to Human Space Mission to Mars or to asteroids. He is President of Space conseil and expert APM (Association Progrès du Management).