Ulf Merbold
JUN 20, 2016
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.031245
Happy birthday to astronaut and condensed matter physicist Ulf Merbold! Born in 1941 in Greiz, Germany, Merbold studied physics at the University of Stuttgart. In 1976 he joined the research staff of the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart. Soon after he was selected by the European Space Agency to train as an astronaut. On 28 November 1983 Merbold became the first ESA astronaut to go to space, when he lifted off aboard the space shuttle Columbia. (He was also the first non-American to fly on a shuttle.) He went into space twice more, including in 1994 to the Russian Mir space station.
Date in History: 20 June 1941
© 2016. American Institute of Physics