Johanna Maislinger facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Johanna Maislinger
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|---|---|
| Born | 23 October 1985 |
| Nationality |  Austria |
| Occupation | Pilot |
| Years active | 2005 – present |
Johanna Maislinger was born on October 23, 1985. She is an Austrian pilot and engineer. Currently, she flies large cargo planes for a German company called AeroLogic. Since 2010, she has flown Boeing 777-200F cargo jets. She started as a First Officer, then became a Senior First Officer in 2011. By 2018, she became a Captain. Johanna became well-known between 2018 and 2020. She said she had support to become a space tourist on a mission called Soyuz MS-20. However, she did not get a seat on that flight. The Soyuz MS-20 mission launched on December 8, 2021, without her.
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Early Life and Pilot Training
Johanna Maislinger grew up in a small Austrian town. It is called Bad Goisern, in Upper Austria. Her family owns a big business there. They run restaurants and hotels in Bad Goisern and a nearby town. In 2004, Johanna was accepted into the Lufthansa Group Flight School. This is where she trained to become a commercial pilot.
After finishing her training in 2006, she joined a company called Hamburg International. She started as a First Officer. She flew Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 planes all over Europe. She also earned a bachelor's degree in Technology Engineering.
Flying Cargo Planes
In 2009, Johanna joined AeroLogic, a company that flies cargo. She started flying their Boeing 777-200F aircraft. These planes fly long distances from cities like Leipzig and Frankfurt. They go to places in Asia and the United States. Johanna first worked as a First Officer. She was promoted to Senior First Officer in 2011. In 2018, she became a Captain.
In 2013, she began studying part-time at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. She started working on a special degree in medicine. She hoped to apply to the European Space Agency (ESA) to become an astronaut. ESA was expected to look for new astronauts around 2021.
Dreaming of Space
In March 2016, a special project started in Germany. It was called Die Astronautin, which means "The Female Astronaut." The goal was to find and send a German woman into space before 2020. The people organizing it hoped to find companies and individuals to pay for the trip. They wanted to use a Russian or American spacecraft.
Johanna Maislinger was one of 400 people who applied. The German Space Agency DLR helped choose the candidates. They planned to pick two finalists. Even though Johanna is Austrian, she had lived and worked in Germany for many years. She hoped to become a German citizen before the final choices were made. However, Johanna was eliminated after reaching the final 30 candidates. She then left the project.
Trying for a Space Tourist Flight
In April 2017, Johanna shared exciting news online. She said she was invited to join another "woman in space" project. This project aimed to send her into space on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2019. An American company called Space Adventures was helping with this plan. Johanna said her main supporter was a rich person from Berlin. Other companies like the Austrian company Red Bull and Red Bull TV were also connected to the project. However, the only available Soyuz seat in 2019 was sold to the government of the United Arab Emirates.
In February 2019, Space Adventures announced another space tourist trip. This trip would use a seat on Soyuz MS-20 in December 2021. Johanna Maislinger's name was again linked to this project. A blog post said that Space Adventures had confirmed Johanna was a possible client for the flight. But it also said she did not have enough money.
In November 2020, a publication called The Space Review reported more news. Officials at Space Adventures had unofficially confirmed that Johanna was still a candidate. They said she might launch into space on Soyuz MS-20 in December 2021. She would fly with an experienced cosmonaut, Alexander Misurkin, and an unnamed Japanese woman. But in 2021, it was announced that Johanna did not get the seat.
In July 2021, the Moscow office of Space Adventures said that Johanna had not raised the money needed. They also said they had not seen her as a serious candidate.
On December 8, 2021, the Soyuz MS-20 mission launched. It carried cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and two male space tourists. They were the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano.
Hobbies and Interests
Outside of her work and studies, Johanna Maislinger enjoys many Extreme Sports. She is skilled in different types of flying, including aerobatics and seaplane flying. She also loves mountaineering, climbing, and sky-diving. In winter, she enjoys cross-country skiing. She is also a horse-rider.
