Jean-Loup Chrétien | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1938-08-20)20 August 1938 (age 87) |
| Status | Retired |
| Occupation | Fighter pilot |
| Space career | |
| CNES spationaut | |
| Rank | Général de Brigade,Armée de l'Air |
Time in space | 43d 11h 19min |
| Selection | 1980 |
TotalEVAs | 1 |
Total EVA time | 5 hours, 57 minutes |
| Missions | Soyuz T-6 Soyuz TM-7 /Mir Aragatz /Soyuz TM-6 STS-86 |
Mission insignia |    |
Jean-Loup Jacques Marie Chrétien (born 20 August 1938) is a French retiredGénéral de Brigade (brigadier general) in theArmée de l'Air (French air force), and a formerCNESspationaut. He flew on two Franco-Soviet space missions and aNASASpace Shuttle mission. Chrétien was the first Frenchman and the first western European in space.
Chrétien was born in the town ofLa Rochelle, France. He was married to and then divorced from Amy Kristine Jensen ofNew Canaan, Connecticut, and had five children. His father, Jacques, was a Navy sailor, and his mother, the former Marie-Blanche Coudurier, was a housewife. Chrétien is fluent in French, English and Russian.
Chrétien was educated at the École communale inPloujean, the Collège Saint-Charles inSaint-Brieuc, and the Lycée deMorlaix. He entered theÉcole de l'Air (the French Air Force Academy) atSalon-de-Provence and graduated in 1961, receiving a master's degree in aeronautical engineering.
Chrétien received his fighter pilot/pilot-engineer wings in 1962, after one year of training onMystère IVs. He was promoted to lieutenant, and joined the 5th Fighter Wing in Orange, in the southeast of France, where he served for seven years as a fighter pilot in an operational squadron flyingSuper-Mystere B2 and thenMirage III interceptors. In 1970, he was assigned to the French test pilots school, EPNER (École du personnel navigant d'essais et de réception), then served as a test pilot at theIstres-Le Tubé Air Base for seven years. During that time he was responsible for supervising the flight test program for theMirage F-1 fighter. In 1977–1978, he was appointed deputy commander of the South Air Defence Division inAix-en-Provence, and he served in this position until his selection as acosmonaut in June 1980. Chrétien remained a French Air Force officer but was placed on detachment toCNES for his space flight activities ensuring his availability for future flights with theSpace Shuttle (NASA),Mir (Soviet Union) orSpacelab (ESA). He has accumulated over 8,000 hours of flying time in various aircraft, includingTupolev-154,MiG-25,Sukhoi Su-26, andSukhoi Su-27. A veteran of three space flights, Chrétien was the tenthInterkosmos cosmonaut, and has spent a total of 43 days, 11 hours, 18 minutes, 42 seconds in space, including anextra-vehicular activity (EVA) of 5 hours, 57 minutes.
In April 1979, the Soviet Union offered France the opportunity to fly a cosmonaut on board a joint Soviet-French space flight, along the same lines as the agreement to fly non-Soviet cosmonauts from member countries of the Interkosmos program. The offer was accepted, and France began a spationaut selection process in September 1979. Chrétien was one of two finalists named on 12 June 1980. He started training at theYuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in September 1980. The following year, he was named as the research cosmonaut for the prime crew of theSoyuz T-6 mission.
Soyuz T-6 was launched on 24 June 1982, and Chrétien,Vladimir Dzhanibekov andAleksandr Ivanchenkov linked up withSalyut 7 and joined the crew ofAnatoli Berezovoy andValentin Lebedev already on board. They spent nearly seven days carrying out a program of joint Soviet-French experiments, including a series of French echography cardiovascular monitoring system experiments, before returning to Earth after a flight lasting 7 days, 21 hours, 50 minutes, and 42 seconds. This flight made him the first Western non-American to go to space, as well as the first Western European. Following the mission he was appointed chief of the CNES Astronaut Office.
Chrétien was selected as the back-up crew member forSTS-51-G (Patrick Baudry, another CNES astronaut, flew on that mission). During 1984–1985, he participated in mission training at theJohnson Space Center.
Chrétien made his second space flight as a research cosmonaut on boardSoyuz TM-7, which launched on 26 November 1988. Together withAlexander Alexandrovich Volkov andSergei Krikalev, he linked up with Mir and joined the crew ofVladimir Titov,Musa Manarov andValeriy Polyakov already on board. They spent 22 days carrying out a program of joint Soviet-French experiments, including a 5-hour and 57-minute EVA by Volkov and Chrétien during which the two men installed the French ERA experimental deployable structure and a panel of material samples. In making the EVA, he became the first non-American and non-Soviet to walk in space. In addition, he was the first non-Soviet cosmonaut to make a second space flight aboard a Soviet spacecraft. The mission lasted 24 days, 18 hours, and 7 minutes.
During 1990–1993, Chrétien participated inBuran spacecraft pilot training at the Moscow Joukovski Institute.
In 1994, he was selected as part ofNASA Astronaut Group 15 to officially become an International Mission Specialist with NASA.
Chrétien attended ASCAN Training at the Johnson Space Center during 1995. He was initially assigned to work on technical issues for the Operations Planning Branch of the Astronaut Office. He served on the crew ofSTS-86Atlantis (25 September to 6 October 1997) the seventh mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. Highlights included the delivery of a Mirattitude control computer, the exchange of U.S. crew membersMike Foale andDavid Wolf, a spacewalk byScott E. Parazynski and Vladimir Titov to retrieve four experiments first deployed on Mir during theSTS-76 docking mission, the transfer to Mir of 4,700 kg (10,400 lb) of science and logistics, and the return of experiment hardware and results toEarth. Mission duration was 10 days, 19 hours, and 21 minutes.
In September 2000, while visiting aHome Depot store inWebster, Texas, he was hit by a 31 kg (68 lb) drill press that fell from a shelf more than 3 m (9.8 ft) above him. The injuries to his neck, head, and shoulders were severe enough that a NASA flight surgeon determined that Chrétien could no longer fly. He was forced to retire from the space program in 2001. He filed a US$15 million lawsuit against Home Depot several months after the accident. The company settled the suit in 2002. The terms of the settlement are protected by a confidentiality agreement.[3] Chrétien is currently working for Tietronix Software as the vice president of research and development inHouston, Texas.
NASA Astronaut Group 14 ← NASA Astronaut Group 15 →NASA Astronaut Group 16 | |||||||
| Pilots and commanders | |||||||
| Mission specialists | |||||||
| International mission specialists |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
