Dozens of astronauts arriving in the Netherlands for international conference

About seventy astronauts will be in the Netherlands in the coming days to attend the annual conference of the Association of Space Explorers Planetary Congress. This year’s event is hosted by Dutch astronaut André Kuipers. Russian cosmonauts were not invited because of the war in Ukraine.

The astronaut conference was scheduled to start on Monday in the ESTEC space mission testing center in Noordwijk, Zuid-Holland. The attendees will then make contact with the crew of the International Space Station (ISS), orbiting at 400 kilometers above the earth. PostNL will also present a special stamp for the occasion.

On Wednesday, the astronauts will spread out across the country. Kuipers will be joined by Queen Máxima at the launch of a special teaching program in Noordwijk. Other space explorers will visit the Royal Military Academy in Breda, the NEMO science museum in Amsterdam, Aviodrome in Lelystad and the Evoluon in Eindhoven.

Two astronauts will visit the Lodewijk College in Terneuzen. This secondary school is named after Lodewijk van den Berg, the first astronaut born in the Netherlands. His hometown of Sluiskil is less than ten kilometers away from the school.

Science Minister Eppo Bruins will visit a vocational college in Leiden with two other astronauts. More astronauts will also visit universities this week.

On Friday, a film directed by André Kuipers will be shown for the first time at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam. He will be joined by several astronauts at the premiere of Beyond, Ode to the Earth.

Among the guests is American astronaut Rusty Schweickart. The 88-year-old was a crew member on the Apollo 9 mission in March 1969. In orbit around the Earth, he tested the moon lander that was used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they became the first people to set foot on the moon four months later.

Other guests include Yang Liwei, who became the first Chinese person to explore space, as well as Scott Kelly and Mark Kelly. The twin brothers are both American astronauts, and the latter currently sits in the U.S. Senate. Game designer and space tourist Richard Garriott will also be in attendance.

Dutch-Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe will also be there. In 2010, he was part of the first fully-commercial space flight. His commander at the time was Michael López-Alegría, who will also be attending the conference. The Spanish-American has been in space six times and has completed ten spacewalks.

In 2000, he also flew a short distance away from his space shuttle with the use of a jetpack. Another American participant, Jerry Ross, has been in space seven times, a record.