Viehböck, Franz

Franz Viehböck, in full Franz Artur Viehböck, (born Aug. 24, 1960, Perchtoldsdorf, Austria), Austrian electrical engineer and cosmonaut, the first Austrian to go into space.

Viehböck graduated from the Vienna University of Technology with a master’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering and later earned a doctorate in electronic engineering. He was an assistant professor at the Vienna University of Technology’s Institute of Electrical Measurements and Circuit Design.

Viehböck was selected for Austromir-91, a joint Soviet-Austrian space mission, in October 1989. He trained at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, U.S.S.R. (now Russia), for two years. He flew into space on Soyuz TM-13 as a research cosmonaut on Oct. 2, 1991, with two Soviet cosmonauts, commander Aleksandr Volkov and research cosmonaut Toktar Aubakirov. Viehböck and his crewmates were transported to the Mir space station, where they conducted scientific and technical experiments in the fields of materials processing, physics, and space medicine. He returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-12, landing on Oct. 10, 1991.

After his spaceflight, Viehböck toured Austria and gave lectures on his space mission. In 1994 he joined the space systems division of the American defense company Rockwell International as a program development manager, working primarily on joint programs with aerospace companies based in Europe and the former Soviet Union. In 1997 he directed the international business development department in the space systems division of the American aerospace corporation Boeing North American. Later that year Viehböck was promoted to director of international programs of Boeing’s new space systems unit, and in June 1999 he became Boeing’s country director in Austria and the European representative of Boeing’s space and communications group. In March 2000 Viehböck was appointed technology adviser to the governor of Lower Austria.

In 2002 Viehböck became the president of Berndorf Band GmbH, an Austrian manufacturer of endless steel belts. In January 2008 he was made a member of the board of the Berndorf Corporation.