My name was on the list very early after these announcements were made through the newspapers in Europe.

Claude Nicollier (born 2 September 1944 in Vevey Switzerland) is the first astronaut from Switzerland and has flown on four Space Shuttle missions. He took part in two servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope (called STS-61 and STS-103). Nicollier retired from ESA in April 2007.