Kuipers Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Two children. Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: ESA Group 3 - 1998. Active Entered space service: 7 October 1998. Number of Flights: 1.00. Total Time: 10.87 days.

André Kuipers

BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 5 October 1958.

EDUCATION: André Kuipers graduated from van der Waals Lyceum, Amsterdam, in 1977 and received a Medical Doctor degree from the University of Amsterdam in 1987.

FAMILY: Two daughters.

RECREATIONAL INTERESTS: Diving, skiing, flying, history, travelling.

EXPERIENCE: During his medical studies, André Kuipers worked in the Vestibular department of the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where he was involved in research on the equilibrium system.

In 1987 and 1988, as an officer of the Royal Netherlands Airforce Medical Corps, he studied accidents and near-accidents caused by spatial disorientation of pilots of high-performance aircraft.

In 1989 and 1990, he worked for the Research and Development department of the Netherlands Aerospace Medical Centre in Soesterberg. He was involved in research on the Space Adaptation Syndrome, contact lenses for pilots, vestibular apparatus, blood pressure and cerebral blood flow. In addition, he performed medical examinations of pilots and medical monitoring of human centrifuge training, and lectured pilots.

Since 1991, Kuipers has been involved in the preparation, coordination, baseline data collection and ground control of physiological experiments developed by the European Space Agency for space missions. In particular he was a project scientist for the Anthrorack, a human physiology facility that flew on the D-2 Spacelab mission in 1993, and for two payloads, for lung and bone physiology, that flew on board the Mir space station during the half-year Euromir 95 mission. He was then involved in the development of the Torque Velocity Dynamometer that flew on the LMS Spacelab mission in 1996.

He is coordinating the life science experiments for the ESA parabolic flight campaigns and participates in flights as an experiment operator, test subject and flight surgeon.

CURRENT ASSIGNMENT: André Kuipers is a project scientist for several ESA human physiology payloads, both in the development and in the operational phase. He is coordinating the scientific input for the development of the Muscle Atrophy Research and Development System and the Percutaneous Electrical Muscle Stimulator, both to be flown on the International Space Station. He is also coordinating experiments for the Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System, which will fly in 2000 on the US Space Shuttle mission STS-107.

September 1999

• 19 April 2004 Flight: ISS Delta. Flight Up: Soyuz TMA-4. Flight Back: Soyuz TMA-3. Flight Time: 10.87 days.

1 August 1998 - ESA Astronaut Training Group 3 selected.. European Space Agency astronauts sent to Russia for cosmonaut training.

As the Station flew over the Red Sea, the ISS Progress 13 craft lifted off its Central Asian launch pad right on time at 5:58 a.m. CST (1158 GMT), and less than 10 minutes later, settled into orbit and deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas. Its computers are loaded with preprogrammed commands for engine firings and rendezvous maneuvers that will lead it to an automated linkup to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module on Saturday morning at 7:15 a.m. CST (1315 GMT).

The Progress 13 docking to the ISS will be broadcast live on NASA Television on Saturday beginning at 6:30 a.m. CST (1230 GMT).

The launch of the new resupply vehicle occurred a little over 24 hours after an identical Progress ship departed the ISS. The ISS Progress 12 undocked Wednesday from Zvezda at 2:36 a.m. CST (0836 GMT) and was later commanded to plunge back into the atmosphere where it burned up. The old Progress was filled with trash and other items no longer needed on board the Station.

The new Progress is loaded with spare parts, fresh food and fuel for Expedition 8 Commander and NASA Science Officer Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri, who are in the fourth month of a planned 61/2-month mission on the ISS. The Progress is also carrying scientific equipment for European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands, who is scheduled to be launched April 19 with the new Expedition 9 crew to the ISS. Kuipers will spend a little over a week conducting an independent science program under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. Kuipers will return to Earth in late April on a Soyuz vehicle with Foale and Kaleri.

The crew had a busy week, focusing on packing the Progress 12 with trash from the Station. Crewmembers also performed scientific experiments and regular station maintenance.

On Monday, Foale worked to set up the EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle Schools) experiment in the Zvezda Service Module. More than 50 schools in Europe, Asia and South America, participated in an Earth observation session beginning Tuesday, requesting photos of specific locations and receiving those photos via the Internet to study geography, geology, botany and Earth science.

Also on Tuesday, the crew closed the hatch to the Progress 12 vehicle for the final time, and took a few minutes to talk to National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue during his tour of the Mission Control Center. Tagliabue is in Houston for Sunday's Super Bowl XXXVIII. On Wednesday, Foale chatted with members of the rock band Aerosmith during their tour of the control center. The band will perform during the Super Bowl pregame show, which will include a tribute to NASA and Columbia crewmembers on the anniversary of the shuttle accident.

On Thursday, Station managers conducted a Stage Operations Readiness Review and found no constraints to the planned April 19 launch of the ISS Soyuz 8 carrying Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mike Fincke, along with European Space Agency astronaut André Kuipers of the Netherlands. Kuipers will be aboard the Station for nine days performing scientific experiments under a commercial contract between ESA and the Federal Space Agency (of Russia) during the handover to the new permanent crew.

Preparations for the Expedition 9 flight will be further evaluated next week during a Flight Readiness Review. Meanwhile, the crew received its final certification for flight from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, this week.

Aboard the Station, Commander Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri successfully completed the initial maintenance and some functional testing of two new Russian Orlan spacesuits delivered in January aboard the most recent Progress supply ship. Those suits replace three older Orlan units on the complex. Padalka and Fincke plan to use them on the first spacewalk of Expedition 9.

Foale also completed an external survey of the Station using cameras on the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Foale was conducting his final proficiency training operating the arm. During the survey, Foale solved a mystery, reporting to Mission Control that a sound he has heard from outside of the Destiny laboratory module was being caused each time he commanded the Lab’s external camera to tilt up and down.

On Friday morning, Kaleri reported another noise to Mission Control in Moscow. He and Foale heard a metallic sound from Zvezda's Instrument Compartment, a sound they said was very similar to a noise they reported on Nov. 26, 2003, coming from the same area. Russian controllers told the crew that the fact that the noise has apparently repeated itself would likely indicate the cause is the operation of a system on the station or some other activity. Russia and U.S. controllers will continue to evaluate the report. All systems on the complex continue to operate normally.

Russian specialists are reviewing plans to replace a cooling fan motor in the Soyuz spacecraft’s descent module. The fan, which stopped functioning during the trip to the Station last October, helps maintain a proper level of humidity inside the Soyuz.

Mission Control completed a successful test of software that will operate the Thermal Rotary Radiator Joints on the Station’s truss. The large rotating joints will be used to position the Station's radiators as they dissipate heat from the complex. Ground controllers ran the check of programs that will automate the positioning of the Station’s radiators as they dissipate heat in the future when the Station's full cooling system is activated.

Foale and Kaleri took time to discuss the progress of their mission with students twice during the week. The crew answered questions from a group of Houston-area middle school students affiliated with the Aerospace Academy for Engineering and Teacher Education. They also demonstrated how some common tools, such as a wrench and hammer, function in space during a talk with elementary school students from the Center for Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio.

On Thursday, Station managers conducted a Flight Readiness Review and found no issues for the planned launch at 10:19 p.m. CDT April 18 of Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mike Fincke, along with European Space Agency astronaut André Kuipers of the Netherlands.

This next crew completed a dress rehearsal for its launch earlier in the week at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and will rest over the weekend in Moscow before returning to the launch site Tuesday for final launch preparations.

While the Expedition 8 crew completes its work, flight controllers and engineers reviewing video of the outside of the station found an unusual black mark on the station's dish antenna. It was determined that over time, as the antenna moves to track NASA's communications satellites, it has been brushing very lightly against a locking pin and handrail. Changing the software slightly to "tell" the dish to stop before gimballing that far easily solved the problem. In any case, the phenomenon has had no effect on the operation of the antenna.

Foale this week focused his attention on wrapping up two major experiments conducted on his increment. The Pore Formation of Materials Investigations (PFMI) and the Foot/Ground Reaction Forces during Space Flight (FOOT) experiments were completed and stowed. PFMI studies the formation of bubbles in metals that could lead to better ways of preventing that occurrence in manufacturing on Earth. FOOT is studying countermeasures to bone mineral loss that occurs in space travelers rapidly in the microgravity environment of space. The same bone mineral loss occurs in postmenopausal females over the course of a year or so.

Kaleri spent some of the week fixing a cooling fan that helps control humidity in the Soyuz spacecraft in which he and Foale will return home. The two also reviewed the inventory of items that will be brought home.

Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka, Flight Engineer Mike Fincke, and European Space Agency astronaut André Kuipers of the Netherlands are at the launch site, ready to go. The ISS Soyuz 8 spacecraft was mated with its rocket booster today, and the pair will be rolled out to the launch site Saturday. Launch remains on schedule for 10:19 p.m. CDT April 18.

Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri spent the week preparing the Station for the replacement crew's arrival, packing for the trip home after six months on orbit, and wrapping up work on several experiments.

Foale and Kaleri supported a test of their ISS Soyuz 7 return vehicle's maneuvering jets, which verified that all thrusters are ready to support undocking, deorbit burn and re-entry. Russian flight controllers monitoring the test reported seeing evidence of the same helium leak that was initially seen in telemetry during the Expedition 8 crew's launch in October. On Friday, Russian controllers conducted an additional test of the helium system used to pressurize the Soyuz fuel tanks to gather additional data on the leak rate, which is believed to have increased some over previous observations. Russian flight controllers are continuing to evaluate data from the tests. However, no impact to the normal Soyuz descent and landing is anticipated.

Kaleri also spent several hours in the Soyuz descent module changing out a pair of ventilation and humidity removal fans. He replaced the fans with a spare stored in the Zarya control module and verified that they are working well. The old fan package, which has one working fan, will be retained on the Station as a spare.

Foale conducted a final session with the Hand Posture Analyzer experiment on Thursday, after wrapping up work with the Pore Formation of Materials Investigations (PFMI) and the Foot/Ground Reaction Forces during Space Flight (FOOT) experiments last week. The Hand Posture Analyzer is an Italian investigation looking at how humans use their arms, wrists and hands for reaching and grasping in microgravity. Final sessions with the RENAL kidney stone experiment were conducted Friday.

Foale also spent several hours Wednesday setting up and activating ESA's HEAT experiment in the Microgravity Science Glovebox for his visiting colleague, Kuipers. HEAT will evaluate whether a grooved heat pipe can be used effectively in the weightlessness of space to transfer heat from hot surfaces, such as electronic devices, to cold surfaces, such as radiator panels.

Otherwise, the crew conducted a series of routine periodic fitness evaluation tests on themselves, and collected samples of a variety of environmental factors inside the Station for return to Earth and evaluation by scientists on the ground when they return home.

The Expedition 9 crew is scheduled to rendezvous and dock with the Station at 12:04 a.m. CDT Wednesday. Hatches will open and the five spacefarers will greet each other at 1:25 a.m. that morning, beginning more than a week of joint operations.

With Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka at the controls, the Soyuz vehicle linked up to the nadir docking port of the Zarya Control Module as the two spacecraft flew 230 miles above central Asia. The docking followed Monday's launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. ISS Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Mike Fincke and ESA Astronaut Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands joined Padalka on the Soyuz.

Padalka and Fincke will spend six months living on the Station while Kuipers, who is flying under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency, will conduct an nine-day research mission before returning April 30 with Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri, who monitored the new crew's arrival from onboard the ISS. Today marked 186 days in space for Foale and Kaleri, and 184 days on the Station.

After leak checks, hatches were opened at 1 a.m. CDT, allowing Foale and Kaleri to greet their first visitors since October to begin joint operations. One of the first tasks for the five crewmembers was a safety briefing and the start of Kuipers' science activities. His scientific payloads arrived at the Station in January on the Progress supply craft presently docked to the Zvezda Service Module.

On the scene at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev outside Moscow observing the docking were NASA Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory, Michael Kostelnik, NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Station and Space Shuttle and ISS Program Manager William Gerstenmaier.

Over the next nine days, Padalka and Fincke will familiarize themselves with Station systems and stowed equipment, conduct robotics training with the Canadarm2 robot arm, and receive detailed briefings on the scientific payloads they will be operating through October.

Foale and Kaleri will exercise rigorously to condition themselves in preparation for the effects of gravity upon their return to Earth with Kuipers in the ISS Soyuz 7 craft (TMA-3) mated to the Pirs Docking Compartment. Landing is set for April 30 at sunrise in north central Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz launched flawlessly at 10:19 p.m. CDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakstan, and is on course to dock with the Station at 12:04 a.m. CDT Wednesday, April 21. Padalka and Fincke will spend six months aboard the Station, while Kuipers will spend nine days at the complex conducting science experiments before returning to Earth with the Expedition 8 crew, Commander Mike Foale and Alexander Kaleri, the Station flight engineer and ISS Soyuz 7 commander.

The hatches between the arriving ISS Soyuz 8 spacecraft and the Station will be opened at about 1:25 a.m. CDT Wednesday. Live NASA Television coverage of the docking and hatch opening will begin at 11 p.m. CDT Tuesday. At the time the Expedition 9 crew launched from Baikonur today, the Station was flying about 240 miles above the southern tip of South America.

After Soyuz TMA-5 docked with the ISS on October 16, the EO-9 crew handed activities over to the EO-10 crew.

Expedition 9's Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke docked their ISS Soyuz 8 spacecraft to the nadir port of the Zarya Control Module at 12:01 a.m. CDT Wednesday. They opened hatches and boarded the station about an hour later, beginning a six-month stay.

With them on the Soyuz was European Space Agency Astronaut Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands, who will spend nine days aboard the Station conducting scientific investigations. Kuipers will return to Earth with Expedition 8's Commander Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri. Foale and Kaleri arrived on the Station last October 20.

Their ISS Soyuz 7 capsule is scheduled to undock from the Station's Pirs Docking Compartment, where it has been during Expedition 8's stay on the Station, at 3:52 p.m. CDT April 29. The landing is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. CDT the same day on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Early Thursday, during their Daily Planning Conference, crewmembers were told that one of the Station's three operating Control Moment Gyroscopes, CMG 2, had gone off line at about 3:20 p.m. CDT on Wednesday. The CMGs use power from the solar arrays to control the Station's orientation. Flight controllers traced the problem to a Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM), a kind of remotely controlled circuit breaker, that had malfunctioned and cut off power to the gyroscope. The RPCM is mounted on the top of the Station's central truss segment, above the U.S. Laboratory Destiny.

Two CMGs continue to operate well and are sufficient for controlling the Station's orientiation until the RPCM can be replaced. Flight controllers have begun planning a spacewalk that will likely be conducted sometime in the next month to replace the RPCM with a spare unit and restore operation of CMG-2. A spare RPCM is aboard the Station.

After a flawless descent aboard the ISS Soyuz 7 spacecraft, Foale, Kaleri and Kuipers landed on target in north-central Kazakstan, about 43 miles (70 kilometers) northwest of the town of Arkalyk, at 7:12 p.m. CDT. Recovery forces arrived at the site within moments of the touchdown.

Foale and Kaleri spent 194 days, 18 hours and 35 minutes in space, the second longest expedition to be completed aboard the Station. They launched on Oct. 18, 2003, on the same Soyuz spacecraft that brought them home. In addition to scientific experiments aboard the Station, in February Foale and Kaleri conducted the first spacewalk ever performed from the complex by a two-person crew.

With the completion of this flight, Foale has accumulated more time in space than any U.S. astronaut. On this mission, a 1997 flight to the Russian Mir Space Station, and four Space Shuttle missions, Foale has amassed a total of 374 days, 11 hours and 19 minutes in space.

Foale, Kaleri and Kuipers will travel to Star City, Russia, where they will remain for mission debriefings and medical activities. Foale is expected to return to Houston in mid-May.

Aboard the Station, the Expedition 9 crew, Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA Station Science Officer Mike Fincke, are beginning a six-month mission that will include three spacewalks. Expedition 9 is scheduled to return to Earth Oct. 21. Padalka and Fincke will have light duty for the next three days as they rest after completing the busy handover period of joint operations between the two crews.