Amateur Radio operator and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Petro Duque, ex-KC5RGG/ED4ISS, has been named as the Minister of Science in the new Spanish government. Duque, 55, first went into space aboard the Shuttle Discovery in 1998, and in 2003 he spent a week on the International Space Station, carrying out Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contacts with two schools in Spain.

Duque went to the ISS under a commercial agreement between the Russian space agency and the ESA. He also conducted a series of scientific studies during his ISS stay. Duque was Spain’s first astronaut.