SPACE.com -- Putin: French Astronaut to ISS in '01

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Claudie Andr-Deshays, 43, the first Frenchwoman in space is an M.D., a Ph.D. in neuroscience and a Soyuz commander for descent.

Russian space agency chief Yuri Koptev, CNES President Alain Bensoussan, and CNES Deputy Science Director Jos Achache.

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	Putin: French Astronaut to ISS in '01 By Frederic Castel Special to SPACE.com posted: 10:34 am ET 06 November 2000

Ivanov said cooperation should be possible in all industries, but especially

PARIS, France -- A French astronaut will fly next year on a Russian flight to the International Space Station, Russian President Vladimir Putin said as he marked the success of the first permanent crew's arrival at the orbiting outpost.

"We just had an important event: the first crew of the International Space Station is in space. In 2001, a new launch will happen, but this time with a French crew member. Other great projects will also take place in the future," Putin said.

Russian space agency chief Yuri Koptev confirmed cooperation between the Russian space agency, the French space agency CNES and the ESA (European Space Agency) to set up an October 2001 trip. They said planning "should be wrapped up around the end of November."

The comments by Putin and Koptev came this week during ceremonies at the luxurious 18^th-century mansion of the Russian ambassador to Paris, where Putin presented awards to two French astronauts who have worked aboard Russia's Mir space station.

The crew of the Russian flight was not announced, but one of the astronauts honored by Putin is expected to be a leading French candidate for the 2001 voyage: Claudie André-Deshays, the first Frenchwoman to travel in space. Andre-Deshays flew on Mir in August 1996. She is the first female astronaut to qualify as a "Soyuz return commander," the designation for those in charge of a three-person capsule on the homeward trip from outer space.

The other French astronaut honored was Jean-Pierre Haigneré, who returned from a record-breaking 188-day mission aboard Mir in August 1999. Both were decorated by the Russian president with the "Order of the People's Friendship."

Haigneré, who flew twice on Mir and holds the Western long-term flight record, now has a permanent position as chief of the Astronaut Division at the European Astronaut Center (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. Married to André-Deshays, Haigneré is part of the European Space Agency's astronaut corps.

The October 2001 mission involves docking a new Soyuz capsule at the space station and allowing a previous capsule to return, as well as scientific experiments.

The Soyuz capsule serves as a lifeboat should an emergency force the crew to evacuate.

NASA officials welcome cooperative flights to the ISS because they provide the Russian space agency with much-needed cash -- funding that could ease the economic burden on Russia for its participation in the ISS consortium.

A history of cooperation

Cooperation between the French and the Russians in space began in 1982 when Jean-Loup Chrétien became the first Westerner to fly on a Soviet spaceflight.

France and the former U.S.S.R. signed a 10-year agreement for human spaceflight activities in 1989. In July 1992, France and Russia signed a memorandum covering a total of four flights until 2000. The first flight, a February 1999 Perseus mission, lasted just over six months with the former CNES astronaut, Jean-Pierre Haigneré, aboard. This mission, part of a December 1996 agreement between CNES and RKK Energia, called for a flight by a French astronaut and execution of a scientific and technological experiment program aboard Mir.

André-Deshays and two other ESA astronauts are the sole space flyers in their ranks trained as Soyuz commanders in case an emergency return in the Russian capsule becomes necessary. The other two include Sweden's Christer Fuglesang, who has never flown, and Thomas Reiter, of Germany, who has flown a six-month mission aboard Mir during the Euromir 95 program. André-Deshays was selected as a CNES astronaut in 1985, and then joined ESA's European Astronaut corps in 1999.

Her resume combines her astronaut experience with a professional medical background, specializing in crew-related medicine. As backup for Haigneré's French-Russian "Perseus" mission to Mir in February 1999, she trained for EVA (extravehicular activity) and obtained the qualification of "cosmonaut engineer" both for the Soyuz vehicle and Mir. During the mission, she was the crew interface coordinator in the Mission Control Center in Korolev, near Moscow.