German astronaut Dr Insa Thiele-Eich to talk about climate change in Bangladesh tomorrow
In April 2017, Dr Insa Thiele-Eich was selected as an astronaut by Die Astronautin, a German non-government project that aims to send the first German woman in space. The 37-year-old German meteorologist working as a scientific coordinator at the Meteorological Institute of the University of Bonn was selected out of over 400 applications from STEM, military and aviation backgrounds.
The initiative began in March 2016 with the plan to launch the flight of the first German female astronaut by 2020. However, the timeline has been pushed back and the flight is scheduled to take off in mid-2021. By March 2017, Thiele-Eich secured a place among the top six finalists. Alongside Thiele-Eich, fighter pilot and Major Nicola Baumann was also selected as one of the two winners. Unfortunately, she later withdrew from the programme, and was succeeded by Dr Suzanna Randall, an astrophysicist working at the Eu