Reinhold Ewald received a Bachelor of Science
degree in Physics from the University of Cologne in 1977 and has a Master of
Science in Experimental Physics in 1983. He graduated in 1986 with a PhD in
Physics and a minor degree in human physiology.
From 1983 to 1987 Reinhold
Ewald was a research scientist with the University of Cologne on a German
academic research federation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) project to
assemble and use a 3 m-diameter radio telescope at the Gornergrat Observatory
at an altitude of 3100 m near Zermatt, Switzerland. His research topic was the
structure and dynamics of interstellar molecular clouds, which are thought to
be the birthplace of new stars. In 1987 Reinhold Ewald joined the
DLR German Aerospace Center. He managed several
projects in extraterrestrial science, including the SOFIA airborne
stratospheric observatory, and various experiments launched on sounding rockets
from the Esrange facility in Sweden. He then became the coordinator for
spaceflight in
DLRs planning department. In 1990 he joined the
German national astronaut team and took up training for the GermanRussian
Mir
92 mission at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City,
Russia. As backup astronaut for
Mir
92, launched March 17, 1992, he served as Crew Interface Coordinator
at the Russian mission control centre,
TsUP, in Korolev, providing communications between the
crew in orbit and the project management and scientists on the ground. After
the mission, he returned to Germany as the Deputy Head of
DLRs Astronaut Office and supported the
Spacelab-D2 mission on the Space Shuttle mission
STS-55,
AprilMay 1993. In 1993 Reinhold Ewald was appointed assistant to the
Director of
DLRs Space Programme. He was responsible for
extraterrestrial, spaceflight and microgravity programmes. In 1995 he returned
to Star City, Russia, to train for the second GermanRussian mission,
Mir
97. From 1998 to 2002 Reinhold Ewald lectured part-time on
spaceflight operations at the Technical University of Munich. Since then he has
also lectured at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France,
where he is a member of the faculty, and at the Technical University of Aachen,
Germany.
In February 1999 he joined
ESAs European Astronaut Corps at the European
Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. Reinhold Ewald was the Crew Operations
Manager for two Soyuz missions with
ESA
astronauts to the International Space Station in 2002. As
ESAs Operations Manager from his duty station in
ESTEC, the Netherlands, he directed the two nationally
sponsored missions in 2003 and 2004. In 2005 he was appointed Head of the
International Space Station Mission Integration and Operations Division in the
ESA
Directorate of Operations and Infrastructure with a permanent duty station at
the Columbus Control Centre near Munich, Germany, From July to December 2006,
as
ESAs Operations Manager, he supervised
preparation and flight operations for the first long-duration mission of an
ESA
astronaut on the International Space Station. The Astrolab mission with
ESA
astronaut Thomas
Reiter was a
precursor to Columbus operations. Reinhold Ewald led the
ESA
operations management team during the
STS-122/1E
mission, which delivered Europes Columbus laboratory module to the
Station in February 2008. When Columbus operations began in 2008 and until
March 2011 Reinhold Ewald was
ESAs lead person at the Columbus Control Centre
and interacted with the Industrial Operations Team and their representatives in
Mission Integration, Executive Planning and Mission Operations services to
assure adherence of operations to
ESAs Space Station programme. As head of
ESAs International Space Station Mission
Integration and Operations Division, he oversaw day-to-day Columbus operations
handled by the groups Mission Directors.
After serving as Advisor to
the Head of Director Generals Cabinet at
ESAs headquarters in Paris (201114),
Reinhold Ewald now promotes the scientific achievements of the
ESA
research programme on the International Space Station, working at the European
Astronaut Centre. in Cologne. On 1 September 2015 he was appointed as Professor
for Astronautics and Space Stations at the Institute of Spaceflight System at
University of Stuttgart on secondment from
ESA.
He enjoys reading and spending time with his family and performs with an
amateur theatre group. He also plays football and holds a black belt in karate.
He retired from
ESA in
September 2018.