with the European Space Agency (ESA). While aboard the Russian space station Mir in February 1998, he carried out scientific experiments on behalf of France. Later that year he began training at NASA's Johnson Space Center to prepare for a space shuttle flight. He went on to handle technical assignments in the Space Station Operations Branch of the Astronaut Office. Eyharts launched aboard space shuttle Atlantis for his second space flight on 7 February 2008. The almost two-month mission journeyed to the International Space Station to deliver Europe’s Columbus laboratory.

Eyharts was selected as an astronaut by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales in 1990 and was selected by the ESA in 1992.