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Andre KUIPERS

Flight Engineer-1 of the Soyuz TMA TSC and ISS VC,
ESA Astronaut, the Netherlands

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
October 5, 1958, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

EDUCATION: In 1977, Andre Kuipers graduated from Van der Waals Lyceum, Amsterdam. Received a Medical Doctor degree from the University of Amsterdam in 1987.

FAMILY STATUS: Married, has two daughters.

ORGANIZATIONS: Member of the Aerospace Medical Association, the Dutch Aviation Medicine Society and the Dutch Association for Spaceflight.

HOBBY: Flying, scuba diving, skiing, hiking, travelling and history.

WORK EXPERIENCE:
During his medical studies, Andre Kuipers worked in the Vestibular Department of the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he was involved in research of human equilibrium system.
In 1987-1988, as an officer of the Royal Netherlands Air Force Medical Corps, he studied accidents and near-accidents caused by spatial disorientation of pilots.
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 of the astronauts adaptation in space, 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 also gave lessons to pilots in psychological aspects of flying.

Since 1991, Kuipers has been involved in preparation, coordination, baseline data collection and ground control of psychological experiments developed by the European Space Agency. In particular, he was a Project Scientist for 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 aboard the Mir Space Station during the six-month Euromir-95 mission. He was involved in the development of the Torque Velocity Dynamometer (TVD) that flew on the LMS Spacelab mission in 1996, the Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System (MARES), a special device used in muscle research onboard the Space Station, and an electronic muscle stimulator (PEMS).
Andre Kuipers provided support for the life science experiments during the ESA parabolic flight campaigns which are performed twice a year. He participated in these flights as an experiment operator, technician, test subject and flight surgeon.
In July 1999, Andre Kuipers joined the European Astronaut Corps of the European Space Agency, whose homebase is at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologue, Germany.
Concurrently with his training he was assigned to the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, the Netherlands, continuing his hormer work for the Microgravity Payloads Division within the Directorate of Human Spaceflight. Until the start of preparations for his flight, Andre Kuipers supported an active research programme in the field of psychological adaptation of humans to weightlessness, coordinated the European experiments on lung function and blood pressure regulation, which will be performed using ESA's specially developed apparatus, the Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System (ARMS).
In 2002, Andre Kuipers completed ESA's Basic Training Programme which is performed at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany and Yu.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Star City, Russia.
From October 30 to November 10, 2002 as 'Cap Com' during implementation of the Odissea Project onboard the ISS by the Belgian ESA astronaut Frank De Winne (VC-4), Andre supported ESA's ground team at the Russian Mission Control Centre.
He was in training for a spaceflight as a flight engineer within a backup crew (VC-5).
In December 2002 he was assigned as a Flight Engineer of the Soyuz TMA spacecraft for a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) within the visiting crew (VC-6) in April 2004.

August 2003
By the data of ESA site