Tognini
Tognini
Credit - www.spacefacts.de
Michel Ange-Charles Tognini French Mission Specialist Cosmonaut. Born 30 September 1949.

Personal: Male, Married, Four children. Born in Vincennes, France.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: CNES Group 1 - 1985, International Group - 1986, NASA Group 15 - 1995. Inactive Entered space service: 9 September 1985. Left space service: May 2003. Number of Flights: 2.00. Total Time: 18.74 days.

Trained for missions under both US and Russian programs. NASA Official Biography

NAME: Michel Tognini (Colonel, French Air Force)
CNES Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:
Born September 30, 1949, in Vincennes, France. Four children. Hobbies include Aeroclub, parachuting and parafoil, tennis, wind-surfing, water-skiing, snow-skiing, cross-country running, wave-surfing, microcomputers.

EDUCATION:
Tognini was educated at Lycee de Cachan, Paris. Received an advanced mathematics degree in 1970 from Epa Grenoble (military school). He enrolled at Ecole de l'Air,(the French Air Force Academy), Salon de Provence, France, graduating with an engineering degree in 1973. Tognini attended the Empire Test Pilots School, Boscombe Down, United Kingdom, in 1982, and the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Defense Nationale (IHEDN) in 1993-94.

SPECIAL HONORS:
French Aeronautics Medal; Chevalier de Ordre National du Mérite; Commander dans l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur; Soviet Order of Friendship between the People; Russian Order of Friendship between the People.

QUALIFICATIONS:
Engineer from the "Ecole de l'Air." Fighter Pilot (all levels). Test Pilot. Airline Pilot. Military Technical Diploma (BTEM). Cosmonaut Diploma from the Soviet Union.

EXPERIENCE:
Following graduation in 1973 from the Ecole de l'Air, Tognini was posted to advanced fighter pilot training at squadron based at Normandie-Neman where he served for one year before obtaining his advanced fighter pilot training. From 1974-1981, he served as an operational fighter pilot in French Air Force (Cambrai Air Base), at the 12th Escadre de Chasse, flying SMB2 and Mirage F1 aircraft. During this tour of duty he served as flight leader in 1976, and flight commander in 1979. In 1982, he was admitted to the Empire Test Pilot School in Boscombe Down, United Kingdom, and later that year was awarded his test pilot diploma. He was awarded his military studies diploma in 1983. Tognini was then posted to the Cazaux Flight Test Center, France, initially as a test pilot and subsequently as chief test pilot. During his time there, he helped test a great deal of French flight hardware. He did the weapon systems testing for the Mirage 2000-C, Mirage 2000-N, Jaguar ATLIS, and FLIR aircraft, and was also responsible for flight safety for pilots, experimenters and flight engineers. In 1985, France opened a recruitment program to expand its astronaut corps, and Tognini was one of seven finalists selected in September 1985. In July 1986, he was one of four candidates to undergo medical examinations in Moscow. In August 1986, he was assigned as the back-up for the Soyuz TM-7 mission. Although Tognini remained a French Air Force officer, he was placed on detachment to CNES for his space flight activities from September 1986 onwards. In November 1986 he reported to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia, for alternate astronaut training, including EVA, for the Soviet-French ARAGATZ mission. During 1989-1990 he supported the HERMES program in Toulouse, France. In 1991 he returned to Star City, Russia, to start prime crew training for the 3rd Soviet-French ANTARES mission. During his stay in Russia Tognini also gained piloting experience of BURAN simulators (MIG 25, TUPOLEV 154).

Tognini has 4000 flight hours on 80 types of aircraft (mainly fighter aircraft including MIG 25, TUPOLEV 154, LIGHTNING MK 3 and MK 5, METEOR, and F 104). He is fluent in English and Russian.

Tognini made his first space flight on board the Soyuz TM-15, TM-14 (July 27 to August 10, 1992). Together with Anatoly Solovyev and Sergei Avdeiev he linked up with Mir 1 (ANTARES mission) and joined the crew of Alexandre Viktorenko and Alexandre Kaleri already on board. They spent 14 days carrying out a program of joint Soviet-French experiments before returning to Earth.

He returned to France following the mission. During 1993-94, he attended a training cycle of the French Institute for High Studies of National Defense (IHEDN).

PUBLICATIONS:
Use of new systems for future aircraft (classified report, 70p). Boscombe Down Preview on Lightning Mk III (report, 300p). The SOYUZ spacecraft system (CNES report, 150p).

NASA EXPERIENCE:
Tognini attended ASCAN Training at the Johnson Space Center during 1995. He was initially assigned to the Operations Planning Branch of the Astronaut Office working technical issues on the International Space Station. Tognini served aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-93 (July 22-27, 1999). During the 5-day mission his primary task was to assist in the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and to conduct a spacewalk if needed. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is designed to conduct comprehensive studies of the universe, and the telescope will enable scientists to study exotic phenomena such as exploding stars, quasars, and black holes. Mission duration was 118 hours and 50 minutes.

A veteran of two space flights, Tognini has logged a total of 19 days in space.

SEPTEMBER 1999

Tognini Spaceflight Log

  • 27 July 1992 Flight: Mir Antares. Flight Up: Soyuz TM-15. Flight Back: Soyuz TM-14. Flight Time: 13.79 days.
  • 23 July 1999 Flight: STS-93. Flight Up: STS-93. Flight Back: STS-93. Flight Time: 4.95 days.
Tognini Chronology

26 November 1988 - Soyuz TM-7. Assignment: Backup Crew. Flight: Mir EO-4, Mir Aragatz, Mir LD-2, Mir EO-3. Mir Expedition EO-04. Carried Alexander Volkov, Sergei Krikalev, Jean-Loup Chretien to Mir; returned Volkov, Krikalev to Earth. Initial Orbit: 194 X 235 km. Thereafter maneuvered to rendezvous orbit 256 X 291 km before docking with Mir in 337 X 369 km at 17:16 GMT 28 November.

27 July 1992 - Soyuz TM-15. Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight: Mir EO-12, Mir Antares, Mir EO-11. Mir Expedition EO-12. Russian astronauts Solovyov and Avdeev and French astronaut Tognini were inserted into an initial 190 x 200 km orbit inclined 51.6 deg. Later on July 27 they maneuvered to a 223 x 343 km orbit, and on July 28 docked with Mir in its 405 x 410 km orbit.
10 August 1992 - Landing of Soyuz TM-14. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: Mir EO-11, Mir Antares, Mir EO-12. The Soyuz TM-14 crew, Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Kaleri, returned to Earth together with French astronaut Michel Tognini. The Soyuz TM-14 undocked from Mir at 21:47 GMT on August 9, and landed in Kazakhstan at 01:07 GMT on August 10.
23 July 1999 - STS-93. Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight: STS-93. STS-93 was first rolled out to pad 39B on June 7 1999. The Chandra/IUS-27 vehicle was placed in the payload canister on June 19. The first launch attempt was on July 20, but controllers aborted the launch at T-6 seconds, just before main engine ignition, due to a data spike in hydrogen pressure data. This was determined to be due to a faulty sensor and a second attempt was on July 22. A lightning storm prevented launch during the 46 minute window, and the launch was again scrubbed. Finally the vehicle lifted off the pad on July 23, but five seconds after launch a short in an electrical bus brought down two of the three main engine controllers. Backup controllers took over, but a further failure on the backup controller bus would have resulted in engine shutdown and the first ever attempt at an RTLS (Return To Launch Site) abort. To further complicate matters engine 3 (SSME 2019) had a hydrogen leak throughout the ascent, causing the engine to run hot. Controllers sweated as temperatures neared redline. The hot engine’s controller compensated as programmed by using additional liquid oxygen propellant. The final result was that the shuttle ran out of gas - main engine cut-off (MECO) was at 04:39 GMT, putting Columbia into a 78 km x 276 km x 28.5 degree transfer orbit. Columbia was 1,700 kg short of oxygen propellant and 5 meters/sec slower than planned. The OMS-2 engine burn at 05:12 GMT circularised the orbit 10 km lower than planned.

The orbiter payload bay contained only the Chandra spacecraft, the IUS, and the IUS tilt tableTthe following payloads were carried in the shuttle’s cabin: STL-B (Space Tissue Loss), CCM (Cell culture module), SAREX-II (Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment), EarthKam, PGIM (Plant Growth Investigations in Microgravity), CGBA (Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus), MEMS (Micro-electric Mechanical System), and BRIC (Biological Research in Canisters) and SWUIS (the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, an 0.18-m UV telescope to be used for airglow and planetary observations); GOSAMR (the Gelation of Sols: Applied Microgravity Research experiment) and LFSAH, the Lightweight Flexible Solar Array Hinge. MSX and SIMPLEX experiments were also to be carried out.

Chandra/IUS-27 was deployed from Columbia at 11:47 GMT July 23. Flight duration was limited; this was the heaviest shuttle (122,534 kg) and heaviest payload (19,736 kg) to that date. Columbia landed at 03:20 GMT on July 28 on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center. Post-flight inspection found the presence of holes in the cooling lines on the nozzle of SSME 2019 (engine 3) which caused a hydrogen leak. A loose repair pin in the engine broke free and caused the failure. The cause of the short was found to be chaffed wiring inside the shuttle. The entire fleet was grounded for inspection and replacement of wiring as necessary.

23 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 01. Flight: STS-93. The Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off late Thursday night (early Friday morning, Eastern time) to carry five astronauts to orbit for the long-awaited deployment of Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which will unveil previously invisible mysteries of the universe.

After two previous postponements, Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and ...more...

23 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 03. Flight: STS-93. Chandra was deployed from Columbia a little more than seven hours into the flight at 6:47 a.m. CDT. Thanks to a pair of burns by its inertial upper stage (IUS), the third of NASA's four great observatories is now on its way to an elliptical orbit that will support five years of observations into the X-ray mysteries of the universe.

"We were extremely confident in the IUS system in placing Chandra in it's orbit," ...more...

24 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 05. Flight: STS-93. Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini were awakened at 5:31 p.m. CDT with the song "Brave New Girls," performed by Teresa.

Hawley, the resident astronomer of the STS-93 crew, will continue his work with ...more...

24 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 04. Flight: STS-93. Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini worked on experiments involving everything from astronomy to biomedicine to plant growth as the shuttle continued to orbit the Earth every 90 minutes in excellent shape.

Hawley, the resident astronomer on board, used the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging ...more...

25 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 07. Flight: STS-93. The five astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia began their fourth flight day at 4:31 p.m. CDT, preparing to make additional celestial observations through the shuttle's windows and continue work with a variety of experiments.

The day started off with a wake-up call sent up in honor of Pilot Jeff Ashby. It ...more...

25 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 06. Flight: STS-93. Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini conducted experiments ranging from astronomical observations with an ultraviolet telescope to cell culture studies. Investigations also included testing new materials which may one day be used to fabricate sturdier solar arrays.

Hawley collected additional data for investigators from the Southwest Ultraviolet ...more...

26 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 09. Flight: STS-93. Columbia's crew began packing up experiments today and preparing to return to Earth tomorrow with a touchdown planned on the Kennedy Space Center's shuttle runway in Florida at 10:20 p.m. CDT.

Commander Eileen Collins and Pilot Jeff Ashby checked out the shuttle's cockpit ...more...

26 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 08. Flight: STS-93. Columbia's astronauts entered the homestretch of their mission this morning, conducting additional experiments in the Shuttle's middeck area as they began preparations for their scheduled return to Earth late Tuesday night.

Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, ...more...

27 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 12. Flight: STS-93. Columbia's astronauts glided to a smooth landing tonight at the Kennedy Space Center, wrapping up their five-day mission to deploy the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Commander Eileen Collins flew Columbia to a textbook touchdown at 10:20 p.m. Central ...more...

27 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 10. Flight: STS-93. Columbia's astronauts tested their ship's systems and packed up their gear, ready for a nighttime homecoming late tonight at the Kennedy Space Center to wrap up their five-day mission.

With the Chandra X-Ray Observatory undergoing what so far has been a flawless checkout ...more...

27 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 11. Flight: STS-93. Columbia's astronauts made final preparations Tuesday evening to come home after a successful five-day flight. Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini were awakened at 2:31 p.m. CDT Tuesday to "A Little Traveling Music" by Barry Manilow, requested by Hawley's wife Eileen, and "The Air Force Song," played for Collins and Coleman.

The first major task will be the closing of Columbia's cargo bay doors at about ...more...

28 July 1999 - Landing of STS-93. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: STS-93. STS-93 landed at 03:17 GMT.
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