Daniel Neuenschwander

Daniel Neuenschwander is Director of Human and Robotic Exploration at the European Space Agency (ESA) and head of the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne. He took up the directorate in July 2023.

From 2016 to 2023 he was ESA's Director of Launchers, a directorate renamed Space Transportation in 2017. Before joining ESA he worked for the Swiss space administration. He headed the Swiss Space Office and the Swiss delegation to ESA, served as deputy state secretary for space affairs and chaired ESA's Programme Board for Launchers. Earlier he was Switzerland's permanent delegate to ESA at the Swiss Embassy in Paris, until 2009, and from 2002 to 2006 programme manager for space exploration and international relations at the Swiss Space Office.

Neuenschwander holds a master's degree in physical geography and climatology from the University of Fribourg. He trained as a Swiss Air Force pilot and holds an airline transport pilot licence from the Swissair Aviation School in Zurich.