Claude Nicollier was floating in space 25 years ago

After nine postponements, the shuttle set off on December 19, 1999 from Cape Canaveral. Discovery had finally left to repair the Hubble telescope. Seven astronauts, including Vaudois Claude Nicollier, participated in this eight-day mission. His extra-vehicular exit into orbit on December 23 remains his most precious memory of his forty-three days and more than a thousand hours of flight in space.

The Vaudois spoke at length about his extra-vehicular outing on December 23 with his “successor” the Bernese astronaut Marco Sieber, last Thursday in Lausanne on the EPFL campus for a show entitled “From Switzerland to the Moon”. In addition to Claude Nicollier's 80th birthday, this evening also allowed us to celebrate the quarter century of this space flight.

Claude Nicollier's spacesuit exit lasted eight hours. Only a rope linked to Discovery the Swiss astronaut, who worked more than 600 kilometers from Earth while traveling at 28,000 km/h. “An intense and difficult moment, but also full of happiness,” he confided. The highlight was the first time I touched the Hubble Space Telescope with my gloved hands. It was like a close friend you hold close to you. I participated in four missions to contribute to his good health. It’s a fabulous tool that has helped us better understand the universe.”

In December 1999, “24 Heures” dispatched a special correspondent to Houston. “These eight days have been among the most beautiful of my life,” Claude Nicollier declared to journalist Xavier Dormond. Barely back on Earth, the astronaut gave him his first impressions of an expedition that he described as “very tough”. With, as a result, a few scares. In substance: “I broke out into sweats, particularly when an alarm informed me that there was excess carbon dioxide pressure in my diving suit. Which can be serious.”

But the Vaudois remembered above all the beautiful memories: “Before the insertion of the replacement star sensor, I was four meters from the telescope, above the hold, at the end of the robotic arm. I then looked up and saw the Earth upside down, the black sky below and the Earth above. We were on the Indian Ocean, we arrived on the west coast of Australia which I saw practically in its entirety. And then, on my left, I also saw the islands of Java and Sumatra. It was incredible… there, I stopped for a moment to look, it was really beautiful. I will never forget these images.”

“Discovery” almost exploded

Discovery returns to Earth on Monday, December 27, 1999, as planned. The mission is crowned with success. In Bern, Federal Councilor Ruth Dreifuss sent a message of congratulations to Claude Nicollier. “Thanks to you, Switzerland is participating in a great human adventure,” declared the President of the Confederation. It was the last in space for the Vaudois astrophysicist, then aged 55.

But this flight had almost been dramatic. A major incident could have caused the loss of the shuttle during its launch on December 19. During a routine inspection carried out by endoscopy on the engines of Discovery Upon returning from the mission on December 27, technicians at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida noted that a fuel injector had come into contact with the tip of the turbine blades of one of the shuttle's three main engines, including “burning” a trace. “It was a close call for a rupture to occur, leading to engine failure and destruction of Discovery.»

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Claude Béda is a journalist for the 24-hour Vaudois section. Passionate about social issues and the lives of people here, he covered several regions of the canton, before joining the Lausanne editorial staff. More info

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