Dirk (Viscount) Frimout (born March 21, 1941 in Poperinge, Belgium) is an astrophysicist for the ESA (European Space Agency). He flew aboard Space Shuttle mision STS-45 as a payload specialist making him the first Belgian in space.
His flight made him instantaneously very famous in Belgium and triggered what was called Frimout-mania. Prince Philippe of Belgium talked with him when he was in space and a street parade was organised in Belgium when he returned.
He is married and has two children. Hobbies include running, bicycling, walking, traveling, and chess.
Frimout flew as a payload specialist on STS-45 Atlantis (March 24 to April 2, 1992). STS-45 was launched from and returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. It was the first Spacelab mission dedicated to NASA's Mission to Planet Earth.
During the nine-day flight, the crew aboard Atlantis operated the twelve experiments that constituted the ATLAS-1 (Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science) cargo. ATLAS-1 obtained a vast array of detailed measurements of atmospheric chemical and physical properties, which contributed significantly to improving our understanding of our climate and atmosphere.
In addition, this was the first time an artificial beam of electrons was used to stimulate a man-made auroral discharge. At mission conclusion, Frimout had traveled 3.2 million miles in 143 Earth orbits and logged over 214 hours in space.
Education:
Elementary School at Poperinge
Secondary School at Atheneum in Ghent, Belgium
Received an Engineer's Degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Ghent in 1963
PhD in applied physics from the University of Ghent in 1970
Post-doctorate at the University of Colorado
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (ESRO fellow) in 1971-1972
Organizations:
Associate member of the Belgian National Council for Space Research
Member of K VIV (Royal Association of Flemish Engineers)
Association of Engineers from the University of Ghent
Honours and Awards:
1971-72 Postdoctoral Research Fellow from ESRO (European Space Research Organization)
After his spaceflight, Frimout was given the title of Viscount
Career:
1965-1978 Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy. As Head of Section Instrumentation, performed experiments with stratospheric balloons and sounding rockets
1978-1984 European Space Agency (ESA) as Crew Activities Coordinator and Experiment Coordinator for Spacelab-1
1984-1989 Microgravity Division of ESTEC, responsible for sounding rocket program, parabolic flights, experiments on EURECA, reflight of Spacelab-1 experiments
Currently, Frimout is an ESA staff member. He is a senior engineer in the Payload Utilization Department of the Columbus Directorate, responsible for the ESA support to the European experiments on ATLAS-1, and the Microgravity Measurement Assembly to be flown on D2. He has authored more than 30 publications relating to Atmospheric Physics Experiments, Crew Training for Spacelab, and Microgravity Experiments.