Vladimir Pletser - Astronaut Selections

ASTRONAUT SELECTIONS

Vladimir Pletser participated in several ESA, NASA and Private Astronaut selections.

1. ESA Selection (1991-1992)

In 1990, ESA issued a call for its future Columbus Space Station and Hermes Spaceplane programmes for up to ten European astronauts, Laboratory and Spaceplane Specialists. The selection first step was left to each of the then 13 ESA Member States to select up to five national candidates for presentation to the second step, the ESA selection at European level. In September 1990, Pletser underwent the selection in Belgium with 550 other candidates. After eight months of medical and psychological tests and professional interviews, he was selected in May 1991 as one of the five Belgian astronaut candidates, in the Laboratory Specialist category, with four other candidates, Mr Werner Stessens (Electronic Engineer), Mr Frank Dewinne (Pilot), Dr Marianne Merchez (Medical Doctor), Dr Lucien Halleux (Geology Engineer) (see here and here; in French here and here).

From September 1991 to May 1992, he underwent the ESA selection process alongside 58 other national candidates, who were selected by the 13 ESA Member States from a total of 20,000 European applicants, representing the last 0.03% of the overall applicants. In the meantime, ESA abandoned the Hermes Spaceplane programme. He was not retained by the ESA Selection Committee, whose decision was based on a medical mistake, officially recognised later on by ESA in 1995.

In May 1992, ESA announced the selection of Mr J.F. Clervoy (France), Mr M. Cheli (Italy), Mr T. Reiter (Germany), Dr M. Merchez (Belgium), Dr C. Fuglesang (Sweden) and Mr P. Duque (Spain). After basic training at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC), in Köln, Germany, the first two were assigned to a NASA Mission Specialist class in Houston, while the last four were assigned to follow the training at the Russian Yu. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre at Star City, Russia, in view of the EUROMIR-94 and -95 missions. In May 1993, M. Merchez resigned for personal reasons.

The five Belgian astronaut candidates (from left): W. Stessens, F. Dewinne, M. Merchez, V.Pletser, L. Halleux. May 1991 (Photo SPPS)

'La Dernière Heure', Brussels, May 1991

Cover page 'Le Soir', Brussels, 3 May 1991

2. NASA Selections (1992-1995)

In May 1992, Pletser applied as Belgian candidate for a NASA Payload Specialist position for the Spacelab IML-2 mission. Although endorsed by IML-2 Principal Investigators, his late application was not considered.

In 1992 and 1993, he promoted with a group of Belgian scientists the idea of a Belgo-Russian scientific space mission onboard the Mir space station. This idea was unfortunately not retained.

In January 1995, Pletser was officially presented by Belgium as a Payload Specialist candidate for the NASA’s Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS) mission, foreseen in June 1996 with a scientific payload of life sciences experiments in human physiology and biology, and microgravity experiments in material sciences, fluid physics and crystal growth. Four other candidates were presented respectively by the French Space Agency (CNES), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and ESA. After recommendation of the LMS Investigator Working Group (IWG), the five candidates reported in March 1995 to the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) for medical tests and briefing on LMS medical experiments. Pletser successfully passed the medical selection and was unofficially offered an Alternate Payload Specialist position, having received the most recommendation from the LMS-IWG. In view of the short training schedule (only 15 months before the mission) and while awaiting the official NASA announcement, he started with three other designated candidates two months of extensive mission and experiment training on LMS payloads at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), the Payload Crew Training Complex (PCTC) of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), ESTEC, and several US university laboratories. However, in May 1995, NASA announced the selection of Dr J.J. Favier (CNES) and Dr R. Thirsk (CSA) as Prime Payload Specialists, and Dr L. Urbani (ASI) and Mr P. Duque (ESA) as Alternate Payload Specialists. After investigations, it appeared that the Belgian Delegation at ESA decided to withdraw its support to the Belgian candidate, due to pressure of the then Director of Manned Spaceflight at ESA.

In July 1995, Pletser applied again with Belgium's agreement for a NASA Payload Specialist for another Spacelab mission, the Material Science Laboratory (MSL). Although the only European candidate, his application was not retained.

Pletser during the medical selection for the Spacelab LMS mission at the NASA Johnson Space Center in March 1995 (Photo NASA)

The four Spacelab LMS Payload Specialists initially retained, (from left) Dr J.J. Favier, Dr V. Pletser, Dr R. Thirsk, Dr L. Urbani at the Payload Operations Control Centre (POCC) of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, March 1995 (Photo NASA)

The four Spacelab LMS Payload Specialists initially retained, (from left) Dr R. Thirsk, Dr J.J. Favier, Dr V. Pletser, Dr L. Urbani at the Payload Crew Training Complex (PCTC) of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, March 1995 (Photo NASA)

3. ESA Selections (1998, 2008, 2021)

In 1996, discussions were held in Europe to integrate the national astronaut corps of France, Germany and Italy with the existing ESA astronaut corps to form a unified European Astronaut Corps of 16 astronauts. France, Germany and Italy would have the right to select four astronauts each, while the other Member States of ESA would have in common four astronauts. Belgium had hopes to present two astronaut candidates. However, in 1998, ESA conducted the new selection for candidates from the other Member States based on a much-disputed shortlist of the first selection in 1991. In October 1998, ESA announced the selection of two candidate astronauts, Mr F. Dewinne for Belgium, and Dr A. Kuipers for The Netherlands.

Pletser applied again for the last two ESA astronaut selections in 2008 and 2021 but his application was not retained each time.

4. AdvancingX Career Astronaut (2019-...)

Pletser applied in 2019 for the AdvancingX Career Astronaut Programme. He was selected in October 2020 with 17 other candidates. He is presently following the AdvancingX Career Astronaut training programme, which includes online and field training. The most recent field training took place in July 2022 at Lake Tahoe in California and included a rogaining challenge at 2000 m elevation and an underwater SCUBA challenge in a simulated Moon gravity environment.

The 18 AdvancingX Career Astronaut Candidates selected in 2020 (AdvancingX)

5. Titans Space Industries Career Astronaut (2025-...)

Pletser applied in 2025 for the Titans Space Industries Career Astronaut program and was selected immediately. He was invited to become a Member of the Advisory Board, in charge of the astronaut training program.

Media Reports

- "Krijgen Frimout en De Winne vandaag een opvolg(st)er?" (in Flemish), De Standaard, 23 November 2022.

- "De onbereikbare Ruimte" (in Flemish), Knack, 20 January 2021.

- "Vladimir Pletser" (in Russian), AstroNote Cosmic Encyclopedia, 11 January 2020.

- "Pas de Belge dans l'espace" (in French, "No Belgian in space"), Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, 11 May 1995.

- "Un deuxieme astronaute belge?" (in French, "A second Belgian astronaut?"), Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, 25 March 1995.

- "Dirk Frimout, premier astronaute belge, s'envolera en mars 1992. La NASA offre a la Belgique un ticket pour l'espace" (in French, "Dirk Frimout, the first Belgian astronaut, will fly in March 1992. NASA offers Belgium a ticket to space"), Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, 11 September 1991.

- "Cinq belges prets a partir a la conquete de l'espace, Vladimir Pletser peut officiellement rever d'Hermes" (in French, "Five Belgians ready to conquer space, Vladimir Pletser can officially dream of Hermes"), Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, 3 May 1991.