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First European Commander of the ISS
RobGoldsmith writes 'ESA astronaut Frank De Winne became the first European commander of the International Space Station this morning with the departure of Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka who had filled this role since April. De Winne is the first non-American and non-Russian to take on this role. Watch the videos and view images here.'
...to welcome our European overlords.
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
isn't part of Europe?
-- Alastair
A Belgian is now commander of the ISS and president of the IOC... and next year probably chairman of the UN Security Council :-)
"Crewman, engage impulse drive!"
"Captain, we have no engines. Our boosters would burn out in two minutes."
"Do you mean we're a sitting duck? Scan the vicinity for hostiles."
"Captain, we have no scanners and no windows."
"Curse this shed..."
"Captain, the toilets are jammed again."
What's with all the discrimination against easter european nations? They're just as european as the rest of them. Hell, poland is even part of the E.U nowadays. Is russia supposed to be in asia or something?
DAMN YOU AND YOUR OFFENSIVE STORIES!
What does being commander entail?
In an emergency I suppose someone would be responsible for barking orders.
But realistically everyone up there, (now that the Cirque du Soleil clown is gone) are professionals and scientific types, and virtually all work schedules are managed by ground support teams.
Commanders in such a working environment generally are cajolers rather than of commanders anyway, but with the working environment I can't see them having much real need of a commander on a day to day basis, other than to lobby ground controllers for workload changes, or more snacks in the next cargo ship.
I suppose if they are still bickering over who gets to use which toilet they might have selected the Euro guy to take the edge off the situation.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
A major gripe in the Russian psyche is that they are 'left out' of Europe despite the fact that the majority of their population is in what is geographically defined as Europe. Way to go and snub them.
What's with all the discrimination against easter european nations? They're just as european as the rest of them. Hell, poland is even part of the E.U nowadays. Is russia supposed to be in asia or something?
DAMN YOU AND YOUR OFFENSIVE STORIES!
But -- isn't slashdot an American site?
Mmm, but with all the 'in soviet russia' jokes, i thought it was in russia.
When does the last American leave?
The sooner the better!
Frank Ze Weenie ?
Is think some kind of weird German joke ???
I wonder why the Americans tried to steal the show in the ceremony?
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Isn't thata great? He is full of De Winne!
we could see a Captain Jean-Luc Picard within a few years?
Owned and hosted by US companies, sure. American site? Only insofar are there are any boundaries on this new-fangled interweb thingo, which is to say, it isn't. You want a US-only site, stop serving to the world (precisely what ./ers tell Murdoch to do with Google), and while you're at it, stop using news from the rest of the world.
Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
Offensive? I'd think a lot of Russians would be insulted if you said they were European. There's a long and mixed tradition of Russia wanting to be a part of Europe and wanting to be something else. On one hand, you have Peter the Great, and subsequent czars, who thought Europe was the cats meow. Then, on the other hand, there's plenty of people that worked for the czar, that thought speaking french in court was a bunch of crap and that europeans sucked anyway. As it is, I think the Russians would prefer to not be thought of us Europeans, but as their equal to them. Russians are just Russians.
This is my sig.
If you are from Western, Northern, or even Southern Europe who remembers USSR, then Russia is from Asia. OTH, if you are from one of these regions, hate America, hate your country, and hate yourself, then Russia and China are European. In fact, so are Cuba, Venezuela, Al Qaeda occupied Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, etc.
He received a Masters degree in telecommunications and civil engineering from the Royal Military Academy, Brussels, in 1984.
I have this image of him building the rest of the station with concrete. The slump test may not work so well in orbit.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
Have you even been to Europe? Of course we consider Russians Europeans! There is no doubt about that! People from the Soviet Republics however are a different matter, and even within the present Russian Federation there are many ethnic peoples!
We sometimes make the distinction because they are so large and have gone through a tough time lately (from Soviet times to Putin). Imperial Russia was at the heart of Europe, and only the Soviet era changed that. St Petersburg was the crown of Russias European identity!
Slavs are Europeans no matter what country in Europe they come from. Slavs are not limited to Russia you know, from Serbia to Russia Eastern Europe is full of Slavic people(s).
I'm a European, specifically a Scandinavian, and we absolutely see Russians as Europeans.
I didn't check my tags above. Oh well. It's past my bed time....
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
There is an old Russian joke that goes like this:
A guy dies and ends up in hell. Before his punishment is due, he's shown around to know what is awaiting for him. At one moment, he and his demonic guide pass by three large foul-smelling pits full of dung.
One pit is bustling with activity - people climb out there every minute or so in large groups, and there are several demons with pitchforks running around the pit pushing the climbers down. The demons are sweaty and obviously tired.
The second pit is mostly quiet, but occasionally a single guy pokes his head outside, and immediately gets pushed down by a young lone demon, who is otherwise standing there yawning.
The third pit is absolutely quiet. There is a very old demon with chipped horns lying near the edge snoring and cuddling his pitchfork in the sleep. However, no-one climbs out of the pit.
The guy looks at all this for some time, and then asks what it is all about. His guide explains:
"The first pit is for Jews. They always stick together and help each other, and as soon as one climbs one step above the others, he stops and helps them get up to his level.
The second pit is for Europeans. They're hardworking, but individualist and way too proud of themselves, so they all climb alone, each on his own.
The third pit is for Russians. As soon as one of them climbs even a little bit higher than the rest, those below him pull him down by the legs into the dung so that he knows his place."
The ESA is not a part of the European Union and includes member nations outside of the EU and even Europe! Norway and Switzerland are members of ESA but not the EU. And Canada is a member but is not a European country!
The European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states.
Something happens on the space station and for some reason the station cant communicate with earth...whos in charge?
The station commander.
In an emergency he would make certain decisions such abandon the station or stay put.
While ground controllers can give direction, you always want to have someone on site who can actually
act on those directions and tell people what to do. A station commander is not for things you expect, its for the things
you dont expect.
Some Americans are really wound up, originally the domain addressing without a country of origin ie .com versus , com.us were and are specifically defined as international. It is only after the republicans wanted to take over the international domains and portray themselves as the imperialistic world government enforcing it's rule, the rule of violent force using it's global military ie. a massive self driven ego trip. In fact to this day if you add .us on any American government web address it points nowhere a real sign that ego trip of a handful of imperialistic individuals controlling the whole world is still alive and strong. Expect this to remain a permanent point of contention and be the likely driver for breaking up international domain name control, to localised mirroring.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
There are 23 official languages in the EU. And many more in Europe [wikipedia.org].
Interestingly the article lists Russian as one of those European languages so either this should be the second European commander or the first commander from the EU.
Is russia supposed to be in asia or something?
DAMN YOU AND YOUR OFFENSIVE STORIES!
Offensive? How so?
I find far more offensive your insinuation that being considered part of Asia would be offensive.
You know, it's Poland not poland.
Again, you forgot Poland!
He's the second Belgian in space since Tin-TIn
Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
His name is Frank de Winne, without the capital D. The D is only capitalized when his first name isn't written. So it's commander De Winne, or commander Frank de Winne.
Then again, I guess it's already impressive you guys put a space between "de" and "Winne".
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
geographically russia is both in europe and asia
- Arwen, I'm your father, Agent Smith.
- Well, you're just Smith, but my father is Aerosmith!
Russians are NOT related to us Scandinavians in ANY way. Russians are Slavs, Scandinavians are Germanic people(s).
I doubt you Americans think of Scandinavia as part of North America? Did you not understand I was a non-Russian, Scandinavian? It says so clearly at the end of my message.
The last Czar did indeed have some Danish blood, that does not make the country, people or history Scandinavian. Unless you think the US is now part of Kenya due to Obama?
I highly doubt you are "Swedish". Russians have always been Europeans. You sound too stupid to be Swedish, and you would know better. Go away, troll!
After reading the summary and all the comments, I still had to check Wikipedia to find out which part of Europe this dude is actually from (Belgium).
You guys know Europe is a continent and not a country, right?
It's definitely of an american bent.
For example, the 'politics' banner is the stars and stripes, US-specific things generally aren't country-denoted, but foreign things are.
I'm not meaning to complain in the slightest, I'm just saying that to a non-american, this site is pretty american.
That's the problem with European socilized education and its admission panels. If Tim Berners-Lee had been a European, he'd have never had the eduction necessary to invent the internet.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Le oui oui, zej get offendad by your ignoranze. Et eez intoleerableuh!
I shall have to taunt you. And, perhapz, a zecond time!
PooLand
For the record, Michael Foale is a Briton who was commander of the ISS on Expedition 8. He was British/American with dual nationality, so one could argue that he was a European commander of the ISS.
It is even more reasonable to describe it as Europe's space program.
The EU is not synonymous with Europe!
That is indeed true, and well known here in Scandinavia.
However that was a tiny group of people in a huge empire of many, many ethnic groups! The ruling class was after all a tiny portion of society.
Drops of blood from a few Vikings in the vast genetic pool of millions of people does not make Russians Scandinavian or Germanic.
Or is America now partially "Kenyan" due to the "ruler" Obama having both Anglo-Saxon and Kenyan blood? :)
Actually, Finland is not Scandinavian, they're just a Nordic nation. The reason is exactly as you stated, they're not of Germanic origin.
The three Scandinavian Kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden share a common origin, people, languages and history. Finland does not.
While the Scandinavians speak Germanic languages and have shared genetic origins, the Finns do not share either with us. The Finns came from Russian territory, Scandinavians came from somewhere in Northern Europe/Germany.
Finns speak a non-Indo-European language related to Hungarian, Scandinavians speak Germanic languages related to English, German and Dutch.
I don't usually bother to explain the difference, but many Finns feel they are "Scandinavian" despite the fact that they lack a claim to that name!
The Vikings came from Scandinavia proper, Finland not included.
The very name Scandinavia comes from the Scania region in southern Sweden, between Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The centre of the three kingdoms that became a united Scandinavia under the Kalmar Union!
They are hardly related. I have read about the Kievan Rus. There is a connection, however it does not make the country Scandinavian.
The present British royal family is full of Danes and Germans, that does not make the country Danish or German!
The United States is ruled by a man of Kenyan ancestry, that does not make the US an African country!
Russia did indeed receive a number of mostly Swedish vikings in the past, that does not make Russia Scandinavian! The people of Russia past and present are not Germanic :)
While there are all kinds of peoples in the Russian Federation, from the Volga-Germans to Finns in Karelia, it is still mostly a Slavic nation (in the Russian republic).
Only if you don't understand context and believe that we should refer to every country by its entire name every time. Personally I would get tired of typing "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irelandian" whenever I wanted to to say "British."
We like Christmas more?
Thank you, I'll be here all week, try the veal, and don't forget to tip your waitress...
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
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