Tognini, Nichel (1949- )

French astronaut with the European Space Agency. He flew aboard the Soyuz mission launched in July 1992, spending 14 days conducting joint Soviet-French scientific experiments; and aboard the space shuttle Columbia in July 1999, which deployed the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. He was selected as a French astronaut in 1985. He trained at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in 1986 and NASA's Johnson Space Center in 1995. He became a CapCom (spacecraft communicator) for the International Space Station and on 1 May 2003 was also appointed as head of the Astronaut Division of the European Space Agency.