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André Kuipers

Astronaut

André Kuipers is the first Dutchman with two space missions to his name. His second mission is the longest spaceflight in European history. In total, the ESA astronaut spent 204 days in space: 11 days during mission DELTA in 2004 and 193 days during mission PromISSe. After years of training in Houston, Moscow, Cologne, Montreal and Tokyo, a Russian Soyuz spaceship launched Kuipers and his two crew members from Russia and America on the 21st of December 2011 from Kazakhstan. Two days later he arrived at the International Space Station to live and work for six months. On board, he was not only a medical doctor, scientist and flight engineer but also handyman and ambassador for several charities. On the 1st of July 2012, Kuipers returned to Earth and landed in his space capsule in the Kazakh steppe. Since his return, he is strongly involved in promoting science and technology among school children.

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