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First Frenchwoman in space hospitalised after suicide attempt
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    • PARIS, Dec 23 (AFP) Dec 24, 2008
     The first Frenchwoman in space and former government minister Claudie Haignere was hospitalised late Tuesday after attempting suicide, a French government source said.

    Haignere, 51, was rushed to hospital after being discovered at her Paris home, where according to another source, she had overdosed on pills. She was conscious when hospitalized, the source said.

    Haignere was an astronaut with the French space agency CNES, flying on a mission to the MIR space station in 1996 and to the International Space Station in 2001, the first European woman to do so.

    She later entered politics, serving as minister for research and new technologies from June 2002 to March 2004, before becoming European Affairs minister in the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a post she held until May 2005.

    She is married to another French astronaut, Jean-Pierre Haignere, who flew on two missions to the MIR space station, in 1993 and 1999, the second for a six-month stay.




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