Frank De Winne: 2th Belgian Astronaut

Frank De Winne Belgian astronaut of the European space Agency (ESA)	Frank De Winne (ON1DWN) Personal data Born in Ghent, Belgium, 25 April 1961, Frank is married and has three children. He enjoys football, small PC applications and gastronomy. Education Frank De Winne graduated from the Royal School of Cadets, Lier, in 1979. He received a Masters degree in telecommunications and civil engineering from the Royal Military Academy, Brussels, in 1984. He was awarded the AIA Prize for the best thesis. In 1991, he completed the Staff Course at the Defence College, in Brussels gaining the highest distinction. In 1992, he graduated from the Empire Test Pilots School (ETPS) in Boscombe Down, England, where he was awarded the McKenna Trophy. Organisations Chairman of the Belgian Armed Forces Flying Personnel Association.
Special honours First non-American pilot to receive the Joe Bill Dryden Semper Viper Award, in 1997, for demonstrating exceptional skills during a flight. Appointed "Officier in de Orde van Oranje Nassau" by the Dutch Queen for shown leadership during operation Allied Force (July 1999). Experience After completing his pilot training with the Belgian Air Force, in 1986, Frank De Winne was an operational pilot on Mirage V aircraft. Detached to the Company SAGEM in Paris in 1989, he then worked in the Mirage Safety Improvement Programme where he was responsible for the preparation of the operational and technical specifications of the Mirage upgrade programme. In December 1992, he was appointed to the Test and Evaluation branch of the Belgian Air Force. As a test pilot, he was involved in various activities, such as CARAPACE (an electronic warfare programme on F16) at Eglin Air Force Base, USA, and a Self-Protection Programme for the C130 aircraft. During that period, he also flew in Gosselies as a reception pilot in different aircraft types. From January 1994 to April 1995, Frank De Winne was responsible for the flight safety programme of the 1st Fighter Wing at Beauvechain, Belgium. From April 1995 to July 1996, as a senior test pilot in the European Participating Air Forces (EPAF), he was detached to Edwards Air Force Base, California, where he worked on the mid-life update of the F16 aircraft, focussing on radar testing. From 1996 to August 1998, he was senior test pilot in the Belgian Air Force, responsible for all test programmes and for all pilot-vehicle interfaces for future aircraft/software updates. From August 1998 to January 2000, Frank De Winne was the Squadron Commander of the 349th Fighter Squadron at Kleine Brogel Airbase, Belgium. During operation Allied Force, Frank De Winne was the detachment commander of the Deployable Air Task Force, a combined Belgian/Dutch detachment that flew about 2000 sorties during this Nato campaign. He has logged 17 combat sorties. Frank De Winne has logged more than 2300 hours flying time on several types of high-performance aircraft including Mirage, F16, Jaguar and Tornado. In January 2000, Frank De Winne joined the European Astronaut Corps of the European Space Agency (ESA), whose homebase is the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. De Winne provided technical support for the X38/CRV project division within the Directorate of Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity, located at ESTEC, Noordwijk/Netherlands.
Assignments In August 2001, De Winne took up training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre (GCTC), Star City, near Moscow. Training includes elements of Basic Training for the International Space Station as well as training as Soyuz board engineer. He is now preparing for a flight to the ISS on the Taxi flight No. 4 scheduled for 28 October 2002. He will serve as flight engineer on Soyuz TMA during ascend, and on Soyuz TM during reentry. This will be the first flight of the newly designed Soyuz TMA Spacecraft. During his 8-day stay onboard ISS he will conduct an international science programme both in the Russian and American segment.
. His Ham radioamateur license: He passed the Belgian radioamateur exams and got the callsign ON1DWN


What is Odissea? Belgian ESA astronaut to carry out an important science and technology programme on board the International Space Station European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Frank De Winne, of Belgian nationality, is to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on 30th October 2002 on board a Russian Soyuz taxi flight. He has become the first Belgian to visit the ISS. During the mission, which has been named Odissea, De Winne will perform a series of science and technology related experiments on board the ISS. The Belgian Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs (OSTC) are providing the funding for De Winne’s flight and the related experimental programme.
A crew including Mission Commander Sergei Zalyotin, and Flight Engineers Frank De Winne and Yuri Lonchakov, will lift off on a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan for a 10-day mission. The launch has taken place on 30 October 2002 at 03:11h UTC. Alongside his Commander, De Winne, as Flight Engineer, will play his part in testing the new Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft which will carry the crew to the Space Station. Two days after launch the spacecraft will approach and dock automatically with the Space Station.
	The prime task of the mission is to replace the TM-34 Soyuz vehicle currently attached to the Station with this modernised version. It is essential for the resident crew that the Soyuz 'lifeboat' remains in top condition in case of an emergency evacuation and so regular 'taxi' flights, such as Odissea, are used to swap an older Soyuz spacecraft with a newer craft every six months. This will be the fourth such exchange of a Soyuz spacecraft since the assembly of the Space Station started in November 1998.

What is the contribution of Belgium to the ISS programme?
Belgium makes a considerable contribution via ESA, especially in the field of the development of new technologies. For instance there is the development of the Crew Return Vehicle (CRV). Belgium makes a large contribution to the X-38 programme for the CRV. And there is science. Although Belgium is a small country it is paying 10% of the scientific equipment for the European Columbus laboratory, which will be docked to the ISS in 2004. So Belgium’s efforts are considerable.

The Belgian QSO's with Frank De Winne from the ISS (NA1SS)
Sunday 3 November 2002, 09:16 UTC
Frank De Winne Crew Pick, Royal Technical School Belgian Air Force,
Sint Truiden (ON4RST), Belgium
QSL Direct via ON7AQ

[[[MPEG two-way AUDIO]]]

[[[My recording at my QTH mp3]]]

Frank De Winne Crew Pick, Euro Space Center, Transinne, Belgium,
2002-11-05 09:00 UTC
QSL Direct via ON7AQ

[[[My recording of this contact]]]

Frank De Winne photo gallery click to enlarge the picture