Among the three first astronauts chosen by the ESA in 1978 for its manned flight programme was the Swiss, Claude Nicollier. Nicollier had to wait 14 years before his first flight in 1992, but eventually clocked up a total of four missions. He logged 1,000 hours in space including an 8-hour space walk to help service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

He retired from the ESA in March 2007.