ESA astronauts past and present attending the ESTEC Open Day on Sunday 6 October 2013: from left to right, Reinhold Ewald, André Kuipers and Ulf Merbold during the event’s opening ceremony. Speaking later in the day, they shared their experiences of flying on Mir, the International Space Station and the Shuttle’s Spacelab respectively. Ulf Merbold is the very first ESA astronaut to fly in space, three decades ago this year.