May 29, 2012

Riding the Dragon

Andr� Kuipers is a Physician working for the European Space Agency and he is currently serving on the International Space Station. From his about page:
About Andr� Kuipers
ESA astronaut Andr� Kuipers is the second Dutch astronaut to fly in space. In 2004 he flew on mission DELTA, an eleven day mission to the International Space Sation (ISS). In 2011 he will return to the ISS, this time for 5,5 months. Kuipers is married, has three daughters and a son. He likes flying, diving, skiing, travelling and history. After high school Kuipers studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam. He worked as a doctor at the Dutch Royal Airforce. In addition he researched spatial disorientation in pilots and space sickness with astronauts. In 1991 he started work at the European Space Agency as coordinator of physiological space-experiments.
He maintains an English language Blog here: Andr� Kuipers logboek Here is his post on working with SpaceX's Dragon as it docked with the ISS:
Dragon attached to ISS, a milestone for spaceflight
Last Friday was a special day on my mission. Don and I docked the SpaceX�s cargoship Dragon to the Space Station. Dragon brings new equipment for the crew. On the 31st of May it will return to Earth with supplies from the others and myself. The Dragon mission is the operational highlight of my mission. But it is also a milestone for international spaceflight. This is the first time that a commercial spacecraft has flown to the ISS and docked with the Station. You could say a new era of spaceflight has begun. Soon private companies will take people to and from space.

Dragon launched on 22 May from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We followed the launch from monitors as we were already flying above Ireland by the time the rocket lifted off. Over the last few days Dragon flew closer and closer to ISS. It even flew around our Space Station to demonstrate that the system works and flight control could intervene if necessary. We installed a special targeting mechanism and a camera in front of Node-2′s window. We needed them to dock the Dragon.
Be sure to check out the photo album -- this is groundbreaking work. A private company is getting into space and doing it well. It is a fun time to be alive! Posted by DaveH at May 29, 2012 1:44 PM
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