Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier has announced he will be leaving the
European Space Agency by the end of 2004.
Nicollier, a veteran of four Space Shuttle flights – including a repair
mission for the Hubble telescope – said he wanted to concentrate on his
teaching duties at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.
The 59-year-old astronaut joined Esa in 1978.
He is the only Swiss to have flown in space and no others are currently part
of the European astronaut programme.
