Bon Voyage, André!

© NASA

There he goes, together with Don Pettit and Oleg Kononenko, on their way to half a year ISS. A great start, no troubles at all, a bit cold, maybe but that's nothing for a Russian rocket like the trusty Soyuz. The previous crew was launched in a blizzard. That's something a shuttle couldn't do!

Well, the whole thing was fun to watch, I watched at home, Dutch TV made a broadcast from ESTEC with a lot of  enthusiastic people attending and a countdown clock running 74 seconds ahead of schedule. I simultaneously watched NASATV for more accurate comments.

I didn't really like the way this flight has been shown by Dutch TV. They missed a lot of well-placed interesting comments about spaceflight. It's always a lot of stupid questions and trivial stuff which only distracts from what is really happening at the moment. I think I can do it better. I really do. There is no real regular space commentator any more since Piet Smolders and Chriet Titulaer retired. Perhaps I should apply as a space commentator...

Okay, I am ranting.

Fun thing I saw during the NASA broadcasts was that Don Pettit signed his hotel door in mirror writing! It seems he is that kind of man, unexpected practical jokes and a good sense of weird humour. I like that. Friday they'll dock at the ISS Rassvet docking port. It will be televised, I will be watching.