André Kuipers

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
André Kuipers
André Kuipers
Country: Netherlands
Organization: ESA
selected on October 7, 1998
Calls: 2 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		April 19, 2004
Landing of the
last space flight: 		July 1, 2012
Time in space: 203d 15h 51min
retired on 1st November 2018
Space flights

André Kuipers (born October 5, 1958 in Amsterdam , North Holland Province , Netherlands ) is the second Dutch spaceman after Wubbo Ockels .

education

Kuipers attended the Van der Waals Lyceum in Amsterdam, received his secondary school leaving certificate in 1977 (Atheneum B) and then studied human medicine. Ten years later he received his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam . He then served as an officer in the medical staff of the Dutch Air Force. He investigated pilots' accidents caused by disorientation. During his studies he had already dealt with the human sense of balance .

research

In 1989 and 1990 Kuipers worked in Soesterberg ( province of Utrecht ). At the Medical Center of the Air Force, he researched the organ of equilibrium, contact lenses for pilots, but also space sickness. He also gave lessons to fighter pilots and informed them about the behavior of the human body in relation to flying.

From 1991 Kuipers worked at the European Space Research and Technology Center, the Dutch location of the European Space Agency (ESA). In Noordwijk ( province of South Holland ) he developed basic physiological research experiments that were carried out on parabolic flights . Some projects in which he was instrumental were even carried out on space flights: including the Torque Velocity Dynamometer ( STS-78 ), the Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System ( STS-107 ), and the Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System ( International Space Station (ISS ) ).

Astronaut activity

Kuipers was selected in the summer of 1998 to strengthen the ESA astronaut corps . It was presented to the public in October at a space exhibition at ESTEC. Nine months later he traveled to Germany and began basic training at the European Astronaut Center (EAC). At the same time, he continued his research in the Microgravity Payloads Division of ESTEC in Noordwijk.

In December 2002, Kuipers was set up to participate in a flight to the ISS. He trained alternately at the EAC and the Juri Gagarin cosmonaut training center in Moscow for the mission known as DELTA (Dutch Expedition for Life science, Technology and Atmospheric research). In addition, Kuipers was a substitute for Pedro Duque , who flew to the ISS in October 2003. During this mission he worked as CapCom in Moscow, as he had with Frank De Winne a year earlier .

Accompanied by the Russian commander Padalka and the US flight engineer Fincke , Kuipers flew to the space station on board the Soyuz TMA-4 in April 2004 . During the nine days on the ISS, Kuipers supervised more than a dozen DELTA experiments, most of which were developed by Dutch scientists.

From May 2007, Kuipers trained as a substitute for Frank De Winne for a long-term stay on board the ISS as part of ISS expeditions 20 and 21 . From December 2011 to the beginning of July 2012 he worked on board the ISS as a flight engineer for expeditions 30 and 31 . With a duration of 192 days, this was the longest flight by a Western European to date.

Kuipers is visiting professor at the Free University of Amsterdam .

Private

Kuipers is married for the second time and has four children, two of them from his first marriage.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ESA astronaut André Kuipers to spend six months on the ISS starting in 2011. ESA, August 5, 2009, accessed on August 5, 2009 (English).

Web links

Commons : André Kuipers  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Kuipers, André
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH 5th October 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam