André Kuipers's Mission to ISS

The 4th ESA long duration mission aboard the Internatioanl Space Station will start next 21 December from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

ESA astronaut André Kuipers, and his crewmates will fly aboard a Soyuz capsule that will dock to the orbital facilty two days later.

André and his crewmates Oleg Kononenko and astronaut Don Pettit will stay in space until mid-May 2012.

For the Dutch astronaut it will be his second trip in space but this time he will stay more than five months up there, conducting various experiments covering a range of disciplines: human research, fluid physics, materials science, radiation and solar research, biology and technology demonstrations. He will also be involved in the ISS' activities, for example overseing the next ATV mission docking.

This A Roll gives an overview of the mission with interview of the ESA astronaut in english, and dutch in the B roll. André Kuipers' crew includes cosmonaut

More backgroud information can be found on: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/PromISSe/index.html