Education: 1976: baccalaureate from the Collège Militaire de Saint Cyr l’Ecole; 1978: he gained two mathematics degrees at the Prytanée Militaire, La Flèche, France; 1981: graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France; 1983: graduated from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace, Toulouse, France; 1987: graduated as Flight Test Engineer from Ecole du Personnel Navigant d’Essais et de Réception, Istres, France. Jean-François is an Ingénieur Général de l’Armement in the French DGA defence procurement agency.
In 1983 Jean-François Clervoy was seconded from the Délégation Générale pour L’Armement (DGA) to French space agency CNES where he worked on autopilot systems for various projects such as the SPOT Earth observation satellite, the STAR optical intersatellite space link and the Vega comet probe. He was selected for the second group of French astronauts in 1985 and started intensive Russian language training. From 1987 to 1992 he directed the parabolic flight programme at the Flight Test Center in Brétigny-sur-Orge, France, and provided technical support to the European human space program at ESA’s Hermes crew office in Toulouse. From 1983 to 1987, Jean-François Clervoy also lectured on signal processing and general mechanics at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace, Toulouse. In 1991, Jean-François Clervoy trained in Star City, Russia, on Soyuz and Mir. In 1992, he joined the ESA astronaut corps at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. In August 1992 Jean-François Clervoy was detached to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA, qualifying as a Space Shuttle mission specialist. Between spaceflights, Jean-François Clervoy was assigned as flight software verification lead in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory and as robotics display design lead for the Space Shuttle. After his third spaceflight, he was assigned as the International Space Station display integration lead in NASA’s Astronaut Office. From 2001 through 2008 he was assigned as Senior Advisor Astronaut for ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle in Les Mureaux, France. In 2008, he was appointed member of the selection board for the new ESA astronaut class. Jean-François Clervoy has military and civilian parachuting licences, military and civilian scuba-diving licences, and a private pilot’s licence.
Jean-François Clervoy is a member of the ESA Astronaut Corps, based at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. As part of his duties, Jean-François Clervoy provides support to the human spaceflight programme, the communications department and the sustainable development office. He is also Chairman of Novespace, a subsidiary of France’s CNES space agency in charge of the parabolic flight programme that uses an A300 aircraft based in Bordeaux-Mérignac, France.
Jean-François Clervoy enjoys racquet sports, canyoning, skiing and enjoys hobbies such as flying boomerangs, Frisbees and kites.