Claudie Haigneré

Claudie Haigneré (; née André; formerly Deshays; born 13 May 1957) is a French doctor, former politician and retired astronaut. The first female astronaut of the French Space Agency (CNES) and the European Space Agency (ESA) to go to space and to visit the ISS, she later was a government minister under Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

Background and training Born in Le Creusot, Claudie Haigneré studied medicine at the Faculté de Médecine (Paris-Cochin) and Faculté des Sciences (Paris-VII). In addition to her medical degree, she went on to obtain certificates in biology and sports medicine (1981), aviation medicine and space medicine (1982), and rheumatology (1984). In 1986, she received a diploma in the biomechanics and physiology of movement and received her doctorates in rheumatology (1984) and neuroscience (1992). She first served as 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.

In 1994, Claudie Haigneré began training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, for the Franco-Russian Cassiopeia mission and learned Russian during her time there. On 17 August 1996, she became the first French woman to go to space when she and two Russian cosmonauts, commander Valery Korzun and flight engineer Aleksandr Kaleri, launched into space aboard the Soyuz TM-24. She eventually retired from ESA on 18 June 2002.

Political career Following her career as an astronaut, Haigneré entered French politics in Jean-Pierre Raffarin's government. She was minister delegate for Research and New Technologies from 2002 to 2004 and succeeded Noëlle Lenoir as minister delegate for European Affairs from 2004 to 2005.

Organizational involvement During her spaceflight in 1996, Haigneré agreed to a request from Dominique Baudis, mayor of Toulouse, that she be the honorary patron of the Cité de l’espace scientific discovery centre. She attended the opening of the centre with Baudis on 27 June 1997. As of January 2025, she still holds this role.

In 2009, Haigneré was named as the founding director of Universcience. Universcience brought together Europe's largest science museum, the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, with the Palais de la Découverte museum. At that time, she was an advisor to the Director General of the ESA. Haigneré held the role of Director of Universcience until 2015, at which point she resumed serving as a special advisor to ESA's Director General.

In 2018, Haigneré agreed to chair the jury of the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards, which is an annual pan-African student competition in which students write an essay or create a poster focusing on science and technology fields as a source of inspiration to unlock opportunities for Africa. The essays and posters will then be judged by an international panel of industry experts, government and academic world members, based on accuracy, creativity, originality and innovation. Haigneré's acceptance of this assignment marked the first time a woman has served on the panel for the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards. and Medal for Personal Valour.