Léopold Eyharts

Léopold "Leo" Eyharts (born 28 April 1957) is a French Brigadier General in the French Air Force, an engineer and ESA astronaut. He has flown to space two times as part of a Mir expedition^[1] and an International Space Station expedition.

Léopold Eyharts
Eyharts in 2007
Born	(1957-04-28) 28 April 1957 (age 67) Biarritz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France
Status	Retired
Nationality	French
Occupation	Test pilot
Awards
Space career
CNES/ESA astronaut
Rank	Brigadier General, French Air Force
Time in space	68d 21h 31min
Selection	1990 CNES Group 3, 1998 ESA Group
Missions	Soyuz TM-27/26, STS-122/123 (Expedition 16)
Mission insignia

Eyharts was born on 28 April 1957 in Biarritz, Basque Country, France. He graduated as an engineer from the French Air Force Academy of Salon-de-Provence in 1979, and graduated from the École du personnel navigant d'essais et de réception (EPNER) French test pilot school in Istres in 1988.^[2]

He launched on board Space Shuttle mission STS-122 to the International Space Station on 7 February 2008, where he joined Expedition 16.^[3] He participated in the installation and configuration of the Columbus European laboratory module.^[4] He returned to Earth aboard mission STS-123 in March 2008.^[5]

Awards and honors

• Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur
• Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite
• Médaille d'Outre-Mer
• Silver National Defence Medal
• Cavalier of the Order of Courage (Russia)
• Cavalier of the Order of Friendship (Russia)
• The medal "For merits in development of space" (12 April 2011) for his outstanding contribution to the development of international cooperation in crewed space flight