Claudie Haigneré

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Claudie Haigneré
CNES/ESA spationaut
Status	Retired
Born	May 13, 1957 (1957-05-13) (age 52) Le Creusot, France
Other occupation	Rheumatologist
Time in space	25d 14h 22m
Selection	1985 CNES Group
Missions	Soyuz TM-24, Soyuz TM-23, Soyuz TM-33, Soyuz TM-32

Claudie Haigneré (formerly Claudie André-Deshays; born 13 May 1957) is a French doctor, politician, and former spationaut with the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (1985-1999) and the European Space Agency (1999-2002).^[1]

Contents 1 Background and training 2 Space career 3 Political career 4 Suicide attempt 5 References

[edit] Background and training

Born in Le Creusot, France, Haigneré studied medicine at the Faculté de Médecine (Paris-Cochin) and Faculté des Sciences (Paris-VII). She went on to obtain certificates in biology and sports medicine (1981), aviation and space medicine (1982), and rheumatology (1984). In 1986 she received a diploma in the biomechanics and physiology of movement. She completed her PhD thesis in neuroscience in 1992.^[1]

[edit] Space career

Haigneré was a back-up crew member for the 1993 Mir Altaïr mission in which her future husband Jean-Pierre Haigneré participated. The asteroid 135268 Haigneré is named in their combined honour. Haigneré visited the Mir space station for 16 days in 1996, as part of the Russian-French Cassiopée mission. In 2001, Haigneré became the first European woman to visit the International Space Station, as part of the Andromède mission. She retired from ESA on June 18, 2002.^[2][3][4]

[edit] Political career

Following her career as an spationaut, Haigneré entered French politics. She became minister for European Affairs in Jean-Pierre Raffarin's government and minister delegate for research and new technologies.

[edit] Suicide attempt

On December 23, 2008, she was hospitalised in Paris after overdosing on pills in an apparent suicide attempt.^[5]

[edit] References