High-flying Dutch astronaut serenaded by daughter

MOSCOW - André Kuipers’ interest in flying has taken him further and longer in space than another Dutch astronaut. In 2004 he participated in an eleven-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), now he is back there for a 5,5 month stint. Kuipers who is married with three daughters and a son, was serenaded by his 3-year old daughter Sterre, he sang the Dutch Sinterklaas song ‘Zie ginds komt de stoomboot uit Spanje weer aan’, stealing the show so to speak. A medical scientist, Kuipers researched spatial disorientation in pilots and space sickness with astronauts and started in 1991 to work at the European Space Agency as coordinator of physiological space-experiments.