Gerhard Thiele Status: Retired 9/2/1953 – Nationality: German Type: Government Agency: European Space Agency Dr. Gerhard Paul Julius Thiele (born September 2, 1953) is a German physicist and a former ESA astronaut. In 1996, he was selected by the German Space Agency to receive Space Shuttle Mission Specialist training at NASA. In August 1998, he joined the European Space Agency (ESA), into which the German national team was integrated. In 2000, he completed his only spaceflight, the STS-99 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.