astronauts, Jean-Francois Clervoy, ESA

(November 19, 1958)

Jean-François Clervoy is a former French Air Force pilot, and European Space Agency astronaut.

Clervoy’s first flight was aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist on STS-66 in November 1994. The primary mission objectives were to study the energy of the sun and its affects on the Earth’s climate.

Clervoy’s second mission was aboard STS-84 – again Atlantis – in May 1997. Although Clervoy was designated as Mission Specialist 1, the most experienced of the seven astronauts on that flight was Michael Foale. British-born Foale was Mission Specialist 5 and was on his fourth of six flights to space. STS-84 was the sixth of nine Shuttle missions to dock with the Russian space station Mir. Foale was joing the Mir crew for a long duration stay. In fact Foale is the only NASA astronaut to have flown extended missions aboard both Mir and the ISS.

Clervoy’s final flight to space was aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-103 in December 1999. Once again one of his crew members was Michael Foale – this time on his fifth flight. STS-103 was a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

From an early age, Jean-François Clervoy took an interest in space exploration and dreamt of becoming an astronaut.

Photographed at the Farnborough Air Show. July 2010.