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NAME: Jean-François Clervoy
BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Longeville-les-Metz, France, 19 November 1958, but considers Toulouse, France, to be his home town.
EDUCATION: Received a baccalauréat from Collège Militaire de Saint-Cyr-l'Ecole in 1976 and passed preparatory classes for les grandes écoles at the Prytanée Militaire Lyceum, La Flèche, in 1978. Graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, in 1981; from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, (ENSAE) Toulouse, in 1983; and as a Flight Test Engineer from Ecole du Personnel Navigant d'Essais et de Réception, Istres, in 1987.
FAMILY: Married, one son and one daughter.
RECREATIONAL INTERESTS: Enjoys racket sports, skill games, canyoning, all flying activities.
ORGANISATIONS: Member of the Association of Space Explorers, Honorary member of the French Aeronautic and Astronautic Association (AAAF).
EXPERIENCE: Jean-François Clervoy was seconded from Délégation Générale pour l'Armement to CNES (French National Space Agency) in 1983, where he was involved in automatics and attitude control on projects like the SPOT Earth Observation satellite, the STAR inter-satellite optical link and the VEGA comet probe.
Between 1983 and 1987, he was a lecturer in signal processing and general mechanics at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, Toulouse. Clervoy also holds military and civilian parachuting licences, military and civilian diving licenses and a private pilot licence. He was selected in the second group of French astronauts in 1985 and the following year participated in an intensive, five-month Russian language course. After graduating as a Flight Test Engineer in 1987, he spent the next five split between the Flight Test Centre, Brétigny-sur-Orge, as Chief Test Director of the Parabolic Flight Programme (responsible for testing and qualifying a Caravelle aircraft for microgravity simulation flights) and the Hermes Space Vehicle Crew Office, ESA Toulouse, where he supported European manned space programmes. In 1991 he completed six weeks of training in Star City, near Moscow, on the Soyuz and Mir systems.
The following year Clervoy was selected to join the ESA Astronaut Corps at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, and in August was detached to the NASA Astronaut Office in Houston, USA, where he completed a year of training and qualified for assignment as a Space Shuttle crew Mission Specialist. He then worked on remote manipulator system/robotics issues for the Astronaut Office Mission Development Branch.
Jean-François Clervoy flew for the first time aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-66 ATLAS-3 (Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science) mission in November 1994. The flight, which studied the composition of the Earth's atmosphere and solar energy output, included a high level of participation by European scientists and a significant ESA contribution in the field of remote operations. Clervoy used the robotic arm to deploy and later retrieve the SPAS atmospheric research satellite of the German space agency.
Clervoy was subsequently assigned to the Astronaut Office Mission Support Branch at NASA where he was flight software verification lead in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), with responsibility for designing the robotics displays for the Space Station branch of the Astronaut Office. Clervoy was selected for his second spaceflight (STS-84), the sixth Space Shuttle-Mir docking mission which took place between 15 and 24 May 1997. During this flight he had numerous crucial tasks, including monitoring the performance of Shuttle systems during rendezvous and docking with the Mir space station. As Payload Commander, he was also responsible for more than 20 scientific experiments and assisted in coordinating the transfer of four tons of supplies to Mir during the five days of docked operations.
Jean-François Clervoy was thereafter made Deputy Chief of the computer branch for the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station at the NASA-JSC Astronaut Office.
SPECIAL HONOURS: NASA Space Flight Medal, Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur, Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite, USSR Pilot-Cosmonaut V.M. Komarov diploma of the International Aeronautical Federation.
July 1998.
Carried Atlas-3 laboratory; deployed and retrieved CRISTA-SPAS. Payloads: Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS) 3, Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmo-sphere (CRISTA)-Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS) 1, Experiment of the Sun for Complement-ing the ATLAS Payload for Education (ESCAPE) II, Inter-Mars Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (ITEPC), Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) A, Physiological and Anatomical Rodent Experiment (PARE/NIH-R), Protein Crystal Growth (PCG-TES and PCG-STES), Space Tissue Loss (STL/NIH-C-A), Shuttle Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS), Heat Pipe Performance (HPP).
Atlantis blasted off on a night launch to Mir, docking with the station on May 17 at 02:33 GMT. Jerry Linenger, who had begun his stay on Mir in mid-January aboard STS-81, would return aboard STS-84. Michael Foale would be left at the station for his stint as the American crew member of Mir. The crew transfered to Mir 466 kg of water, 383 kg of U.S. science equipment, 1,251 kg of Russian equipment and supplies, and 178 kg of miscellaneous material. Returned to Earth aboard Atlantis were 406 kg of U.S. science material, 531 kg of Russian logistics material, 14 kg of ESA material and 171 kg of miscellaneous material. Atlantis undocked from Mir at 01:04 GMT on May 22. After passing up its first landing opportunity due to clouds over the landing site, the Shuttle fired its OMS engines on the deorbit burn at 12:33 GMT on May 24. Atlantis landed at 13:27 GMT at Kennedy Space Center's runway 33.
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) servicing mission SM-3A, delayed repeatedly by technical problems with the shuttle fleet after the near-disastrous previous launch. Finally launched after the last possible day to avoid Y2K computer problems; one spacewalk was cancelled so that the shuttle could return by December 28. Hubble was in a 591 km x 610 km x 28.5 deg orbit at launch. After separation of the external tank ET-101 the Orbiter was in a 56 km x 587 km x 28.5 deg transfer orbit. The OMS 2 burn at 0134 UTC raised the orbit to 313 km x 582 km. The payload bay contained: