Dirk Drys David Damian Freemauth , Viscount Freemauth ( n. Dirk Dries David Damian Frimout ; born March 21, 1941 , Poperinge , West Flanders ) - Belgian engineer , astronaut , the first Belgian citizen to make an orbital space flight .
| Dirk Freemaut | |
|---|---|
| Dirk frimout | |
 | |
| A country |  Belgium |
| Specialty | electrical engineer payload specialist |
| Expeditions | STS-45 |
| Date of Birth | March 21, 1941 (78 years) |
| Place of Birth | Poperinge , West Flanders , Belgium |
Education, Work
Born on March 21, 1941, during the occupation of the country by German troops. I finished high school in Ghent .
In 1963 he graduated from the University of Ghent , receiving a degree in electrical engineering. From 1965 to 1978 he worked at the Belgian Institute of Space Aeronautics in Brussels . As head of the instrumental department, he performed experiments with stratospheric and rocket probes . In 1970 he received his doctorate in applied physics at the University of Ghent. Since 1972, he completed an internship at the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder ( Colorado ).
Space Training
In 1977, an agreement was concluded between the European Space Agency and NASA , according to which in 1980 a European astronaut was to take part in the first flight of the Spacelab laboratory module on board the American shuttle . Of the fifty applicants, Belgium presented in September 1977 five finalists, among whom was Dirk Freemaut. However, none of them ended up in the ESA astronaut detachment.
Since 1978, D. Freemaut worked at ESA, participating in the training of European astronauts. From 1984 to 1989, he was Chief Engineer at the European Space Research and Technology Center ( European Space Research and Technology Center, ESTEC ) in Noordwijk (the Netherlands ).
It was only in December 1985 , in accordance with the bilateral US-Belgian agreement, that Freemauth was selected as a payload specialist for an EOM ( Earth Observation Mission ) flight. Belgians appointed double in the crew STS-61K. The flight was to be held in the autumn of 1986 , but the disaster of the Challenger shuttle in January 1986 canceled out these plans.
A new assignment to the crew of D. Freemaut was received on September 29, 1989 , and again as an understudy specialist in the payload of the STS-45 flight. But after the main candidate, Michael Lampton , was removed from the crew for medical reasons, his place on 10 September 1991 was taken by Dirk Freemaut.
Flight on Atlantis
His only flight into space 51-year-old Dirk Freemaut made March 24 - April 2, 1992 on board the shuttle Atlantis ( STS-45 ) as one of the two payload specialists. The main objective of this flight was to conduct scientific experiments in the Spacelab orbital module within the framework of the new program “Flight to Planet Earth”, designed for several expeditions. The main payload in the module was the ATLAS-1 Atmospheric Science and Applications Laboratory ( Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science ).
The flight duration was 8 days 22 hours 10 minutes 24 seconds.
Post-flight activities
After the execution of the space flight, on June 30, 1993, the King of the Belgians, Baudouin, granted Dirk Freemaut his personal Viscount title with erection in the hereditary nobility. [one]
From April 1994, he worked as research director at Belgacom in Brussels. Later he became an employee of the Flanders Language Valley Foundation in Ypres , a foundation dedicated to the development of computers with voice control.
Since 2009, he has been a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Belgium, a department of technical sciences. Candidate Member of the Belgian National Space Research Council. Member of the Royal Association of Flemish Engineers.
Family
Married Two children. He is fond of running, cycling, traveling, chess. Radio amateur as ON1AFD. [2]
Notes
- ↑ Dirk Frimout, the first Belgian in space (English) . Focus on Belgium (June 16, 2015). The appeal date is February 6, 2019.
- ↑ About Frimout