
André Kuipers is the first Dutchman with two space missions to his name. His second mission was the longest spaceflight in European history.
André Kuipers is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He is the first Dutchman with two space missions to his name. His second mission is the longest spaceflight in European history. In total the ESA astronaut spent 204 days in space: 11 days during mission DELTA in 2004 and 193 days during mission PromISSe.
After years of training in Houston, Moscow, Cologne, Montreal and Tokyo, a Russian Soyuz spaceship launched André and his two crew members from Russia and America on the 21st of December 2011 from Kazakhstan. Two days later he arrived at the International Space Station to live and work for six months. On board he was not only a medical doctor, scientist and flight engineer, but also handyman and ambassador for several charities. On the 1st of July 2012, André returned to Earth and landed in his space capsule in the Kazakh steppe.
Astronaut André Kuipers offers a unique look behind the scenes of international human spaceflight. He shares his story about the training, the mission and his exceptional view of our planet.
"We approached Pauline because there was a need to get the guests at our Integral Safety in Higher Education seminar thinking about Integral Safety. We wanted our pretty complex subject to be introduced in a light-hearted and ideally amusing way - I guess we wanted the impossible. We have got to know Pauline as a professional artist who isn't satisfied until all aspects of her performance are seamlessly tuned to the needs of the subject. She meticulously researches the subject and comes up with different creative perspectives which she then moulds into what in our case was a razor-sharp parody that the audience loved, but also contained lots of surprising leaps that got them thinking about the subject Integral Safety. Pauline strikes a perfect balance between content and entertainment. We consider her performance to our conference as invaluable; she played a major part in making the day a success."
Dr. Andre Kuipers is one of the most inspiring storytellers I have ever worked together with. He is well-prepared, curious, and customizes his presentation to his actual audience. The feedback we got back from our colleagues after his talk was extremely positive. Also, to organize our event through Speakers Academy was smooth and fun – I hope we can work together in the near future.