CNES astronaut Jean-Jacques Favier, 1st French scientist to fly in space, dies at 73

STS-78 payload specialist Jean-Jacques Favier, representing the French space agency CNES, holds up a Bubble Drop Particle Unit test container to a camera inside the Spacelab module aboard the space shuttle Columbia in July 1996.

Jean-Jacques Favier, who in 1996 became the sixth astronaut and first scientist from France to launch into space, has died at the age of 73.

Favier's death on March 19 was confirmed by the CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales or National Centre for Space Studies), France's space agency.