Michel Tognini

Michel Tognini
Born (1949-09-30) 30 September 1949 (age 75)
Vincennes, France
StatusRetired
NationalityFrench
OccupationTest Pilot
Space career
CNES/ESA astronaut
RankBrigadier General, French Air Force
Time in space
18d 17h 46m
Selection1985 CNES Group 2, 1999 ESA Group
MissionsSoyuz TM-15/14, STS-93
Mission insignia
CNES astronaut Michel Tognini works with a nitrogen freezer on the STS-93 Space Shuttle mission, which supported the Plant Growth Investigations in Microgravity (PGIM) and Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC) experiments on this mission which took place in 1999. This mission also launched the Chandra X-ray telescope.

Michel Ange-Charles Tognini (born 30 September 1949 in Vincennes, France) is a French test pilot, engineer, brigadier general in the French Air Force, and a former CNES and ESA astronaut who served from 1 January 2005 to 1 November 2011 as head of the European Astronaut Centre of the European Space Agency. A veteran of two space flights, Tognini has logged a total of 19 days in space. Tognini has 4000 flight hours on 80 types of aircraft (mainly fighter aircraft, including the MiG-25, Tupolev 154, Lightning MK-3 and MK-5, Gloster Meteor, and F-104). He is fluent in English and Russian.