BIO
André Kuipers
Born 5 October 1958, Kuipers is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut who has flown into space twice. His first mission in April 2004 was a short-duration stay on the International Space Station (ISS) for a week and a half. His second mission launched on 21 December 2011 and returned on 1 July 2012, during which time he was responsible for berthing SpaceX’s Dragon, the first private vehicle to dock with the ISS.
Why did you decide to become an astronaut?
It all started when I was about 12 with some sciencefiction books I had from my grandmother. That triggered my fantasy, but it was still a boy’s dream. I grew up in the period that we landed on the Moon and launched Skylab, and then the Space Shuttle was built, so I saw all these beautiful pictures. And then the ESA was founded, and it had a Dutch astronaut. I thought ‘hey,
