Editing Ulf Merbold (section)

{{Short description|German astronaut and physicist (born 1941)}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{use American English|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox astronaut
| name          = Ulf Merbold
| image         = Ulf_D._Merbold.jpg
| caption       = Official portrait for [[STS-42]], 1991
| alt           = Ulf Merbold wearing an orange spacesuit 
| type          = [[ESA astronaut]]
| status        = Retired
| birth_date    = {{Birth date and age|1941|06|20|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Greiz]], [[Thuringia]], [[Nazi Germany|Germany]]
| occupation    = [[Physicist]]
| time          = 49 days <!-- If you add higher precision please provide a source. -->
| selection     =[[List of astronauts by selection#1978|1978 ESA Group]]
| mission       = [[STS-9]], [[STS-42]], [[Euromir|Euromir 94]] ([[Soyuz TM-20]]/[[Soyuz TM-19|TM-19]])
| insignia      = [[Image:Sts-9-patch.png|45px]] [[Image:Sts-42-patch.png|50px]] [[Image:Soyuz TM-20 patch.png|40px]] [[Image:Euromir 94 mission patch.png|48px]] [[Image:Soyuz TM-19 patch.png|45px]]
|}}

'''Ulf Dietrich Merbold''' ({{IPA|de|ʊlf ˈdiːtrɪç ˈmɛrbɔlt|lang}}; born 20 June 1941) is a German physicist and astronaut who flew to space three times, becoming the first [[West German]] citizen in space and the first non-American to fly on a [[NASA]] spacecraft. Merbold flew on two [[Space Shuttle]] missions and on a Russian mission to the space station ''[[Mir]]'', spending a total of 49 days in space.

Merbold's father was imprisoned in [[NKVD special camp Nr. 2]] by the [[Red Army]] in 1945 and died there in 1948, and Merbold was brought up in the town of [[Greiz]] in [[East Germany]] by his mother and grandparents. As he was not allowed to attend university in East Germany, he left for [[West Berlin]] in 1960, planning to study physics there. After the [[Berlin Wall]] was built in 1961, he moved to [[Stuttgart]], West Germany. In 1968, he graduated from the [[University of Stuttgart]] with a diploma in physics, and in 1976 he gained a doctorate with a dissertation about the effect of radiation on iron. He then joined the staff at the [[Max Planck Institute for Metals Research]].

In 1977, Merbold successfully applied to the [[European Space Agency]] (ESA) to become one of their first astronauts. He started astronaut training with NASA in 1978. In 1983, Merbold flew to space for the first time as a [[payload specialist]] or science astronaut on the first [[Spacelab]] mission, [[STS-9]], aboard the [[Space Shuttle Columbia|Space Shuttle ''Columbia'']]. He performed experiments in materials science and on the effects of [[microgravity]] on humans. In 1989, Merbold was selected as payload specialist for the International Microgravity Laboratory-1 (IML-1) Spacelab mission [[STS-42]], which launched in January 1992 on the [[Space Shuttle Discovery|Space Shuttle ''Discovery'']]. Again, he mainly performed experiments in life sciences and materials science in microgravity. After ESA decided to cooperate with Russia, Merbold was chosen as one of the astronauts for the joint ESA–Russian [[Euromir]] missions and received training at the Russian [[Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center]]. He flew to space for the third and last time in October 1994, spending a month working on experiments on the ''Mir'' space station.

Between his space flights, Merbold provided ground-based support for other ESA missions. For the German Spacelab mission [[STS-61-A|Spacelab D-1]], he served as backup astronaut and as crew interface coordinator. For the second German Spacelab mission [[STS-55|D-2]] in 1993, Merbold served as science coordinator. Merbold's responsibilities for ESA included work at the [[European Space Research and Technology Centre]] on the ''[[Columbus (ISS module)|Columbus]]'' program and service as head of the [[German Aerospace Center]]'s astronaut office. He continued working for ESA until his retirement in 2004.