Dr Feichtinger took up the post of IAF Executive Director on 1 January 2012.
Before moving to the IAF, Feichtinger, who comes from Austria, spent three years as senior advisor on exploration at the European Space Agency (ESA). Prior to that, he was head of ESA’s permanent mission in the Russian Federation, after having worked as the Agency’s representative for human space flight and exploration in Moscow during 10 years.
Previous positions Feichtinger held include: flight operations support manager for the Euro-Russian EUROMIR-94 and 95 missions at the Russian mission control centre near Moscow; liaison officer to Russian organisations within the EUROMIR-94 and 95 mission management teams at the ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands; and technical manager of the Soviet-Austrian AUSTROMIR project and follow-on missions.
Feichtinger holds a PhD in space experimentation from Graz University of Technology, Austria.