Dutchman to head for space in April 2004: ESA spokesman

MOSCOW (AFP) Jul 08, 2003
A Dutch astronaut, Andre Kuipers, will head for the International Space Station (ISS) in April next year aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, the head of the European Space Agency mission in Russia, Alain Fournier-Sicre, said Tuesday.

An agreement to this effect will be signed "in the next few days" between the ESA and the Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos, the official told AFP.

Kuipers, 44, will lift off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a 10-day mission, accompanied by a Russian cosmonaut.

It will be his first space mission.

SPACE.WIRE