If Claude Nicollier is known for anything, it is being the first astronaut from Switzerland and the first European to ever participate in a spacewalk. Claude was born with a passion for all thing aeronautical, but this dream became a reality when he graduated from the University of Lausanne with a Bachelor degree in Physics and the University of Geneva with a Master of Science in astrophysics, completing his studies in 1975.
Whilst studying for his degree, Claude trained and qualified as a Swiss Air Force pilot in 1966, an airline pilot in 1974 and a test pilot in 1988 at the Empire Test Pilots’ School, UK. In 1980, Claude joined Group 9 at Houston’s NASA station to compete Space Shuttle training - he was stationed there until 2005. During this time, Claude became Head of the Astronaut Office Robotics Branch and a member of the Astronaut Office Extravehicular Activity Branch from 2000. Despite dedicating a lot of his time to NASA, Claude also maintained an active duty status within the Swiss Air Force as a Captain, flying Hawker Hunter, Northrop F-5E Tiger and Pilatus PC-9 aircraft until 2004. After his career in the skies came to an end, Claude moved to teach the flyers of the future. In 2007, he was appointed as a Professor of Spatial Technology at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Since taking to the skies, Claude has flown in over 4000 different planes and spaceships, most of which are jet aircraft. He still flies Hawker Hunters, as civilian aircraft, during airshows.
