Next ISS flight named DELTA

The Dutch Ministers of Economical Affairs and of Education, Culture and Science have announced the mission name of the next Soyuz flight to the International Space Station, which has Dutch ESA astronaut André Kuipers serving as flight engineer. This mission has been christened ’DELTA’.

Flanked by Kuipers and ESA’s Director of Human Spaceflight, Mr Jörg Feustel-Büechl, on Tuesday Ministers Brinkhorst and Van der Hoeven unveiled the mission logo and also announced the experiments to be performed by Kuipers during his stay on board the International Space Station (ISS).

Kuipers will launch on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in April 2004 to spend more than a week on ISS. While there he will carry out an extensive programme of scientific, technological and educational experiments as part of the DELTA mission. These experiments are sponsored by Dutch Ministries and therefore have a Dutch character.

The mission name DELTA refers to the experiments to be performed during the flight. DELTA is the acronym for “Dutch Expedition for Life science, Technology and Atmospheric research”. It also refers to the Delta Works, the network of dykes and dams that protect the Netherlands province of Zeeland from sea flooding.

During the press conference it was explained that Kuipers would perform experiments in the areas of biology, medical science, technology, physics and Earth observation.

Special attention will be given to educational activities during the flight. The Minister of Education, Culture and Science announced a special experiment called “Seeds in Space”. School children on Earth and Kuipers in space will simultaneously grow the same species of lettuce. The question this experiment seeks to answer whether the lettuce’s growth will be in the direction of light or forced by gravity.

ESA has also organised a Dutch website project that will allow pupils of selected schools to chat with Kuipers by radio during his flight.

Mission DELTA will be overseen by ESA and is made possible by funding of the Dutch Ministries of Economical Affairs and of Education, Culture and Science.

Media Contact

European Space Agency

More Information:

http://www.esa.int/export

All latest news from the category: Physics and Astronomy

This area deals with the fundamental laws and building blocks of nature and how they interact, the properties and the behavior of matter, and research into space and time and their structures.

innovations-report provides in-depth reports and articles on subjects such as astrophysics, laser technologies, nuclear, quantum, particle and solid-state physics, nanotechnologies, planetary research and findings (Mars, Venus) and developments related to the Hubble Telescope.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors