Kuipers and the universe: Can you become an astronaut?

1. Patience

Number one: patience. I applied for the vacancy for an astronaut at ESA in 1990 and was not selected. Eight years later, I was allowed to join the astronaut team. Then I waited and trained for another six years before I could go into space in 2004.

Lots of patience is also helpful during training. We train thousands of hours in simulators for each mission. And the belief is that 90 percent of all this training is for emergencies. So never use it in practice.

2. Perseverance

My American colleague Clayton Anderson applied fifteen times before NASA finally hired him as an astronaut. The word “perseverance” was not mentioned anywhere in the job vacancy. However, you must have more than average.

Three weeks in Russia, a week in Japan, two weeks in America, a weekend at home, and then another month in Russia. This is what my training schedule looked like. I took Russian lessons with jet lag and studied late into the night. You must always keep going, and never give up.

3. The ability to learn

Top scientists, political leaders and Olympic medalists must be the best at their profession. Things work differently for astronauts. As an astronaut, you don't have to excel at anything. In fact: I'd rather not do that.

Instead of getting an “A” in a few subjects, astronauts get a “C” in many different subjects. In space, you are the hands and eyes of scientists on Earth. So an outlet. You should be able to learn a lot very quickly. So you can do a little bit of everything there.

4. Team player

In space, you're “contained” together in a space the size of an airliner. No matter what happens, you have to depend on each other. As an astronaut, you have to be able to work together very well. And not just in space, but on Earth as well. From the people who made my space suit to my boss who paid my salary and the scientist for whom I conducted experiments. I had to be on the same page with everyone.

5. Tolerance of frustration

In 2011, I almost missed my long journey into space because of a German colleague. Not because I wasn't good enough, but for political reasons. Then it became clear that the spacewalk I had trained for had been removed from my mission. On board the space station, I was very annoyed by the lack of privacy, or by my colleagues being busy radioing to Earth all the time. How many times have you encountered something in your work that upsets or frustrates you? In space travel, the number is at least ten times greater. So make sure you have maximum frustration tolerance.

Job application messed up?

I obtained a satisfactory result in all the above qualities. And so I reached the final round of job interviews. What was I doing there? I accidentally knocked over a glass of orange juice! I thought: Now it's over. But the jury didn't look at that juice-covered table. Notice what I did next: searching for a cloth and wanting to clean the place myself. And that's exactly what astronauts should do out there…

Ask Andre: Do you have tips for Kuipers and the universe or a question about the universe, space travel or sustainability? Send an email to [email protected]. André Kuipers answers the most original posts in this section each month.