Wubbo Johannes Ockels was a Dutch physicist and astronaut with the European Space Agency who, in 1985, became the first Dutch citizen in space when he flew on STS-61-A as a payload specialist. He later became professor of aerospace engineering at Delft University of Technology.
NASA portrait of Ockels in 1981.
Wubbo Ockels as an astronaut
The STS-61-A crew with Ockels second from the right
Ockels in Spacelab
STS-61-A was the 22nd mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. It was a scientific Spacelab mission, funded and directed by West Germany – hence the non-NASA designation of D-1. STS-61-A was the ninth and last successful flight of Space Shuttle Challenger before the disaster. STS-61-A holds the current record for the largest crew—eight people—aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing.
Guion Bluford, Reinhard Furrer, and Ernst Messerschmid in Spacelab Module LM2, serving as the Spacelab D1 laboratory.
Back: Steven R. Nagel, Guion Bluford, Ernst Messerschmid, Wubbo Ockels Front: Reinhard Furrer, Bonnie J. Dunbar, James Buchli, Henry W. Hartsfield Jr.Space Shuttle program← STS-51-J (21)STS-61-B (23) →
The Grand Canyon from orbit
Clearwater Lakes in Quebec, Canada (meteorite impact craters) as seen during the mission.
