Courtesy of the European Space Agency
THE BIG GUN Night falls on the latest, most powerful version of Europe's Ariane 5 rocket, being readied for liftoff from the Guiana Space Centre off the northern coast of South America. The rocket has two solid-fuel boosters and a main tank that carries 173 tons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. That fuel is fed into the new Vulcain 2 engine—the engine that may carry European astronauts to Mars.
At six foot two, André Kuipers does not necessarily stand out among his dutch compatriots at a cocktail party, but as an astronaut he is a giant. He is also something of a hometown hero in the Netherlands. Kuipers is one of 13 European astronauts who proudly work alongside their American and Russian colleagues on the International Space Station. In his most recent assignment, he spent nine days aboard the station and performed nearly two dozen science, engineering, and education experiments.
Kuipers's journey to the station and back was rather less than heroic, however. He had to ride aboard a cramped, Soviet-designed Soyuz capsule, his knees almost touching his chest. He did not mind the tight quarters as much as the knowledge that the capsule's navigation system sometimes goes on the fritz. When that happens on the descent, the capsule shifts into an automatic corkscrew pattern, which puts a whopping 8 g's on the three astronauts stuffed inside. Even the Soyuz's normal 4-g plunge is enough to make a hardened test pilot uncomfortable. Kuipers experienced 8 g's on a military jet during training, and he remembers having particular trouble doing two things: staying conscious and breathing.
