JANUARY 2002
In April 1979, the Soviet Union offered France the opportunity to fly a cosmonaut on board a joint Soviet-French space flight, along the same lines as the agreement to fly non-Soviet cosmonauts from member countries of the Intercosmos program. The offer was accepted, and France began a cosmonaut selection program in September 1979. Chrtien was one of two finalists named on June 12, 1980. He started training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in September 1980. The following year he was named as the research-cosmonaut for the prime crew of the Soyuz T-6 mission. Soyuz T-6 was launched on June 24, 1982, and Chrtien, Dzhanibekov and Ivanchenkov linked up with Salyut 7.
This flight made him the first Western non-American to go to space, as well as the first Western European.
Chrtien made his second space flight as a research-cosmonaut on board Soyuz TM-7, which launched on November 26, 1988.
In making the EVA, he became the first non-American and non-Soviet cosmonaut to walk in space. In addition, he was the first non-Soviet cosmonaut to make a second space flight aboard a Soviet spacecraft.
He served on the crew of STS-86 Atlantis (September 25 to October 6, 1997) the seventh mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir.
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/chretien.html
