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ESA astronaut, Andre Kuipers, will be leaving the International Space Station to return home on Sunday, 1st July. He will have spent 193 days in space, the longest of any European astronaut. On his blog, Andre talks about his mixed feelings about coming home, “On the one hand I want to go home and see my family and friends. On the other hand I do not want to leave because I know I will never return to space.” Before he returns home, Andre has to train hard on the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED), so that his muscles in his legs and back are prepared to bear his weight again, on the Earth’s surface. Without regular resistive exercise, astronauts experience loss of muscle and bone mass due to the microgravity environment on the ISS.

Andre has contributed to many experiments on the ISS and has been involved producing educational videos and talking to schools about science in microgravity.

You can see a series of his education videos looking at science in microgravity here

The photo shows the Soyuz spacecraft that André Kuipers and his crewmates Don Pettit and Oleg Kononenko will use to return to Earth on Sunday morning.
• The STEM Centre eLibrary has a Human Space Exploration collection
• As well as the popular ISS Primary and ISS Secondary education kits

Image credit : NASA/ESA