three flight opportunities for European astronauts to the Lunar Gateway. Former members There are 18 former members of the ESA astronaut corps. Some ESA astronauts were selected by other European agencies and then enrolled into the European Astronaut Corps in 1998. European astronauts outside of ESA Interkosmos Ten Europeans became astronauts within the Soviet Union's Interkosmos program, which allowed citizens of allied nations to fly missions to the Salyut 6, Salyut 7 and Mir space station. Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandrov Jean-Loup Chrétien Bertalan Farkas Mirosław Hermaszewski Georgi Ivanov Sigmund Jähn Dumitru Prunariu Vladimír Remek Helen Sharman Franz Viehböck Space Shuttle NASA trained and flew astronauts from allied nations on the Space Shuttle, especially as payload specialists for scientific missions such as Spacelab. Prior to the foundation of the ESA astronaut corps, both the French CNES and the German DLR had selected their own rosters of astronauts, notably in preparation for the introduction of the ISS. The following people flew on various Shuttle missions. Patrick Baudry Jean-Jacques Favier Dirk Frimout Reinhard Furrer Leonid Kadeniuk Franco Malerba Ulrich Walter Mir The following people flew on missions to Mir under agreements between their nations and Russia. Ivan Bella Klaus-Dietrich Flade Space Shuttle missions Astronauts from the European Astronaut Corps participated in several NASA Space Shuttle missions before the ISS era, in particular as Spacelab Payload Specialists. NASA considered the full-time ESA astronauts as payload specialists, but offered some the opportunity to train with its own astronauts and become NASA mission specialists. (This list excludes missions to Mir or the ISS) As Payload Specialists Ulf Merbold – STS-9 (Spacelab), STS-42 (Spacelab) Reinhard Furrer – STS-61-A (Spacelab-D1 Mission) Wubbo Ockels – STS-61-A (Spacelab-D1 Mission) Hans Schlegel – STS-55 (Spacelab-D2 Mission) Ulrich Walter – STS-55 (Spacelab-D2 Mission) As Mission Specialists Claude Nicollier – STS-46, STS-61 (Hubble), STS-75, STS-103 (Hubble) Maurizio Cheli – STS-75 Jean-François Clervoy – STS-66, STS-103 (Hubble) Gerhard Thiele – STS-99 Pedro Duque – STS-95 Missions to the Mir space stations Astronauts from Europe have flown to Mir both on board Soyuz vehicles (as part of the Euromir programme) or on board the Space Shuttle. Jean-Loup Chrétien – Aragatz (1988) Helen Sharman – Project Juno (1991) Franz Viehböck – Austromir '91 (1991) Klaus-Dietrich Flade – Mir '92 (1992) Michel Tognini – Antarès (1992) Jean-Pierre Haigneré – Altair (1993) Ulf Merbold – Euromir '94 (1994) Thomas Reiter – Euromir '95 (1995) Claudie Haigneré – Cassiopée (1996)