Die Astronautin: Six women have made it to the final

7 June 2017

Six women have now been selected for the finals for Die Astronautin, the first female German astronaut. In the medical and psychological procedures of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) they competed against 80 other highly qualified applicants. On 1 March the six finalists were presented to the public.

More than 400 women applied to become the first female German astronaut. Six women have now made it. They are Germany’s hope for its first woman in space. They have passed the official selection procedure of DLR, which is based on the standards of the European Space Agency (ESA) for the selection of astronauts. They have demonstrated they are physically and mentally capable of withstanding the stresses of space. The six women were presented to the public at Airbus in Bremen. These are the finalists:

Nicola Baumann, born March 10, 1985 in Munich, Bavaria, is a Eurofighter pilot with the Bundeswehr in Nörvenich near Cologne. She carries the rank of “Major” and is responsible among other things for airspace monitoring in Germany and friendly NATO nations. After office training, she trained as a pilot and completed a postgraduate course in mechanical engineering. Speeds of more than 2000 km/h have been part of her everyday life.

Lisa Marie Haas, born on September 23, 1983 in Nürtingen, Baden-Württemberg, is a development engineer and part-project manager at Robert Bosch GmbH in Reutlingen. She specialises in sensors used in consumer electronics such as mobile phones, game consoles, wearables and drones. She graduated at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Heidelberg.

Susanne Peters, born October 7, 1985 in Potsdam, Brandenburg, is a promising engineering of aerospace technology and works as a research associate at the Department of Astronautics at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. Today she is dealing with the removal of space debris from orbit. Susanne Peters studied aerospace engineering in Stuttgart before she decided to pursue a doctorate at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich.

Magdalena Pree, a native Austrian with German nationality, she grew up near Passau and works as a Ground Operations Engineer at the Galileo Control Centre of the DLR Society for Space Applications in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich. In addition to live operations on the satellite systems, the 28-year-old is also responsible for the identification of problems and their solution as well as for the control of system components. Magdalena Pree studied aerospace engineering at the TU Munich.

Insa Thiele-Eich, born April 21, 1983 in Heidelberg, is a meteorologist and scientific coordinator at the Meteorological Institute of the University of Bonn. It conducts basic research for improved weather and climate prediction and, for example examines the water or energy between soil, vegetation and atmosphere. In her doctoral thesis she analyses the effects of climate change on Bangladesh. She studied meteorology at the University of Bonn.

“During the research carried out by DLR in cooperation with HE Space, the candidates have demonstrated with their professional attitude that they have the psychological abilities and medical conditions to prepare for a flight into space,” says Claudia Stern from the DLR Institute for Aerospace Medicine “Within the framework of the selection process, DLR has been able to obtain unique psychological and medical data from women in connection with a flight to space.”

For further information on Die Astronautin visit dieastronautin.de and on Facebook at facebook.com/DieAstronautin

Original article available at: http://dieastronautin.de/presse in German.

English translation by Ryan Laird, Design & Data GmbH.