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Ulf Dietrich Merbold (born June 20, 1941) was the
first West_Germany|West German and second
Germany|German astronaut.


Merbold was born in Greiz, Germany — by
chance just 40 kilometers from where Sigmund
Jähn, the first German in space, was born. After
he finished school in 1960, he left East Germany
and settled in West Germany. He studied physics at
the University of Stuttgart, earning a diploma in
1968 and a doctorate in 1976. He then joined the
Max-Planck-Institute for Metals Research in
Stuttgart, where he worked on solid state physics
and low temperature physics.

In 1978 the European Space Agency (ESA) selected
him, together with Wubbo Ockels and Claude
Nicollier, to train as payload specialists on the
first flight of the Spacelab module. In 1982 he
was selected as the prime payload specialist, and
in 1983 he flew on board the Space Shuttle
Columbia|Columbia on the STS-9 mission.

In 1984-1985 he participated in the preparation of
the first German Spacelab mission, D-1, and thus
served as backup payload specialist for STS-61-A
as well as "Crew Interface Coordinator".

1986 he transferred to the European Space
Technology Center (ESTEC) to work on the European
Columbus module for the International Space
Station. In 1986 he also became Head of the
Astronaut Office of the German spaceflight
organization DLR.

In 1988 NASA nominated Ulf Merbold as payload
specialist on the IML-1 mission, which launched on
STS-42 in January 1992. The following year he was
Science Coordinator for the second German Spacelab
mission, D-2 (STS-55).

In 1993 he also started training to fly the first
of two joint European-Russian missions to the
space station Mir, called Euromir 95. In 1994 he
was the first ESA astronaut to fly into space with
Russia, on board Soyuz TM-20. During his three
spaceflights he spent a total of 49 days, 21 hours
and 38 minutes in space.

Ulf Merbold is still working for ESA in the
Microgravity Promotion Division of the ESA
Directorate of Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity
at ESTEC, but he is no longer a member of the
European astronaut team.

== External links ==

*
http://www.esa.int/export/esaHS/ESALZQ0VMOC_astron
auts_2.html ESA biography
*
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/merbold-u.ht
ml NASA biography
* ISBN 3785703996 Flug ins All, German
autobiography (1985)