Frank, Viscount De Winne (born 25 April 1961, in Ledeberg, Belgium) is a Belgian Air Component officer and an ESA astronaut. He is Belgium's second person in space (after Dirk Frimout). He was the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission when he served as commander of ISS Expedition 21. ESA astronaut de Winne serves currently as Head of the European Astronaut Centre of the European Space Agency in Cologne/Germany (Köln).
Soyuz TM-34 was a visiting mission to ISS, which carried 3 cosmonauts and astronauts. Russian Commander, cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko alongside Flight Engineer, ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori and Flight Engineer/Spaceflight Participant Mark Shuttleworth launched aboard the Soyuz spacecraft on April 25, 2002, 06:26:35 UTC. They docked with the station two days later. During their stay there, crew assisted Expedition 4 members in station work. Soyuz TM-34 crew returned aboard Soyuz TM-33, landing safely back on Earth on May 5, 2002, 03:51:53 UTC.
Low Earth OrbitSoyuz TMA-1 covers Expedition 5 and 6 by carrying 3 astronauts and cosmonauts to the International Space Station. Russian Commander, cosmonaut Sergei Zalyotin alongside Flight Engineers, Frank De Winne (ESA) & Yury Lonchakov (RSA) will launch aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and then rendezvous with the station. The landing crew on TMA-1 are Commander Nikolai Budarin (RSA) and Flight Engineers Kenneth Bowersox (ESA), Donald Pettit (NASA). It landed on May 4, 2003, 02:04:25 UTC
Low Earth OrbitSoyuz TMA-15 begins Expedition 20 by carrying 3 astronauts and cosmonauts to the International Space Station. Russian Commander, cosmonaut Roman Romanenko alongside Flight Engineers, Frank De Winne (ESA) & Robert Thirsk (CSA) will launch aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and then rendezvous with the station. It landed on December 1, 2009, 07:17 UTC
Low Earth OrbitThe European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,000 employees. ESA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station program); the launch and operation of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon; Earth observation, science and telecommunication; designing launch vehicles; and maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana.