Today, at the space station in Baikonoer in Kazachstan, the final preparations for the launch of three astronauts – including the Dutch André Kuipers – take place. He, together with his Russian and American colleagues, will be launched at 2.16 pm GMT and they will arrive Friday at the international space station ISS. Kuipers takes a special watch – the R.O.1 Space Special Edition – with him, especially designed for this space travel by Roland Oostwegel from Heerlen (the Netherlands).
The R.O.1 Space Special Edition shows Kuipers the time, his total time in space and the “mission-time” in days and weeks. On the dial Kuipers can see when the space ship made one complete rotation around the Earth: that takes exactly 91 minutes and 59 seconds. To make the watch as light as possible, Oostwegel made the watch of carbon fibre, titanium and ceramic and provided it with a shock system. Of course Oostwegel has to deal with safety rules, like the risks of reflection, static electricity and the change that Kuipers could lose his watch.
Besides the astronaut version, there is also a Limited Edition for watch aficionados who stay on Earth, available in steel, titanium, ceramic and gold. The special “mission-time counter” is replaced by a day- and date indicator. Prices of the watch are between 5.900 euro’s (steel) to 13.900 euro’s (rose and white gold).
Kuipers is the first Dutch astronaut who will stay in space for five months. He will return to Earth on the 16th of May 2012.
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