Born May 13, 1957 (Le Creusot, France)

French astronaut

Claudie Haigneré grew up during the dawn of the space age. In October 1957, slightly more than five months after her birth, the former Soviet Union surprised the world by launching Sputnik 1. The first artificial satellite (an object that orbits in space), it was followed four years later by the flight of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968; see entry), the first human to orbit in space. In 1969, when Haigneré was twelve years old, American astronaut Neil Armstrong (1930–; see entry) became the first human to walk on the Moon. By 2001 Haigneré herself had made space exploration history: She was the first European woman astronaut to visit the International Space Station (ISS; see entry). She had the further distinction of being only the second European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut to make the trip. After her flight to the ISS...