FRANCE: Lara Marlowe reports from Paris about France's popular new minister for technology and research. The most talked about member of the new French government is Europe's first female astronaut, Ms Claudie Haigneré, née André-Deshayes.
Photographs of the smiling Ms Haigneré wearing a space-suit were published on the front pages of several French newspapers yesterday, following her appointment as junior minister for technology and research.
The second Raffarin government was "in orbit", said Libération's headline.
"The space star lands at Raffarin's," said France Soir.
Ms Haigneré (45) decided to become an astronaut when at the age of 12 she watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. She earned her baccalauréat at 15 and became a medical doctor at 24. With 19 years of higher education, she holds degrees in biology, sports medicine, aeronautical and space medicine and rheumatology.
She was a practising physician when she applied to the French space studies centre CNES in 1985. Only seven of 700 candidates were selected, and she was the only woman. Eight years later, she met her future husband, the astronaut Jean-Pierre Haigneré, when she was his substitute for a Franco-Russian flight on the Mir space station.
"It was a Pygmalion story - he taught her, and she surpassed him," says Ms Anne Gayet, author of Legendary, a book of profiles of pilots and astronauts including Ms Haigneré.
Ms Haigneré became the first European woman to go into orbit in 1996, when she led the two-week Cassiopia mission, also on Mir. During the flight, she conducted experiments on the reproduction of salamanders in outer space.
Living in Russia with her husband, who holds the rank of general in the French air force, she then became the only woman in the world to learn to pilot Soyuz, a sort of outer space life-boat.
The Haignerés have a four-year-old daughter, Carla, and were living between Paris and Cologne, where Mr Haigneré recruits European astronauts for the European Space Agency. A spokesman for the ESA said her appointment was "a good way to lose an astronaut", adding that it should inspire women in related fields.
Scientists hope her appointment will rekindle enthusiasm for manned space flights. The former socialist education minister, Mr Claude Allègre, considered them a waste of money.
Ms Gayet describes Ms Haigneré as a warm and charismatic scientist. "She's not an extra-terrestrial . . . She told me how a female presence eased tension in link-ups between Mir and the US space shuttle. She is a model for women who want to take up atypical careers and keep their femininity."
By filling 10 of 38 cabinet positions with women, the Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, may hope the French will forget that President Chirac's party, the UMP, fielded few female candidates in the legislative election.
As a result, the new assembly is only 12.5 per cent female. The president and prime minister have won praise for choosing several ministers, including Ms Haigneré, from civil society.
Mr Hamlaoui Mekachera, a Harki (Algerian loyal to France in the 1954-62 war) and president of the National Council of French Muslims, was made secretary of state for war veterans.