Credit: ESA/NASA.

André Kuipers is the first Dutch ESA astronaut with two space missions to his name. His second mission is was the longest spaceflight in European history until ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti set a new duration record for both ‘longest single space flight by a woman (199 days 16 hours)’ and for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight of a European astronaut.  André Kuipers spent a grand total of 204 days in space: 11 days during his first flight, the DELTA Mission in 2004 and 193 days during the PromISSe mission in 2011/2012. On board of the International Space Station (ISS), as flight engineer, he performed many diverse tasks including scientific experiments, coupling of spaceships and vital maintenance and repair work.

Since his return to earth in July 2012, André has inspired large groups of people young and old with his space talks promoting Dutch and European activities in space .

In 2013 Andre Kuipers was appointed as Ambassador of Teckniekpact – a Technology pact that was created by the Dutch government with the industry and the educational sector to stimulate young people to study science and technology subjects.  The Netherlands is facing a serious shortage of technical personnel and André is passionate about helping to turn this situation around by inspiring and motivating the youth and their school teachers as he believes they are the key to a sustainable future.

Also in 2013, the André Kuipers Foundation was established to support charities contributing to the sustainability of our planet, developing science and technology and proving for a successful future for our youth.