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Franz Artur Viehböck (born August 24 1960 in Vienna) is an Austrian electrical engineer, and Austria's first astronaut.
Together with Clemens Lothaller he was selected for the Soviet-Austrian space project Austromir 91. After two years of training he was chosen for the mission, and started on October 2 1991 together with the Russian cosmonauts Alexander A. Volkov and the Kazakh Toktar Aubakirov in Soyuz TM-13 from the Baikonur cosmodrome spaceport.
At the Mir space station he conducted 15 experiments in the fields of space medicine, physics and space technology, together with the cosmonauts Anatoly Artsebarsky and Sergey Krikalev. Viehböck returned after 7 days and 22 hours with Soyuz TM-12, and landed in Kazakhstan on October 10.
The following two years he held numerous lectures on the mission, then went to the United States and worked for Rockwell. When Rockwell was taken over by Boeing he became "Director for International Business Development" in Vienna. Later he was assigned Technologiebeauftragter (technology coordinator) of Lower Austria.
Viehböck resides in Berndorf. He is married, his daughter Carina was born during his mission in space.
See also: Timeline of astronauts by nationality, List of astronauts by name
External links
- Franz Viehböck site (http://www.franzviehboeck.com/)de:Franz Viehböck