On Monday morning, astronaut André Kuipers handed over the Dutch flag that he had taken to the International Space Station ISS to the Rijksmuseum. He does this in honor of twenty years of people on board the ISS, an anniversary that will be celebrated on Monday. The flag came back to the Netherlands when the ISS crew used it to safely pack goods.
The flag is signed by Kuipers and astronauts Don Pettit and Oleg Kononenko, with whom Kuipers arrived on the ISS in 2011. Gennadi Padalka, Sergei Revin and Joe Acaba have also put their signatures on the flag. They stayed behind on the ISS when Kuipers, Pettit and Kononenko went home.
“I consider this flag as national heritage. My stay as the first Dutch person on the ISS is part of our national space travel history,” says Kuipers. “In my view, the Rijksmuseum is the most suitable place to preserve this symbol of our presence on the ISS for posterity.”
The flag was received by Harm Stevens, the museum’s twentieth century curator. “The Rijksmuseum manages a collection of historical flags, including the Amsterdam ship flag that was forced to leave behind by Willem Barentsz on the island of Nova Zembla at the end of the sixteenth century,” says Stevens.
“This Dutch flag, ‘carried’ by André Kuipers, fits within that collection. It is also a silent witness to a groundbreaking expedition, this time in space.”
Flag was used to pack goods back to Earth
Kuipers hung the flag as a backdrop when he had a video call with Prime Minister Mark Rutte or school children, for example. “That kind of stuff usually stays at the top of the ISS”, Kuipers tells NU.nl.
Kuipers had the privilege of docking the Dragon, the very first commercial freighter from Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX, to the ISS during his mission. “We all had to load stuff to bring back to Earth, but no packaging material was taken into account for that stuff.”
In order to return the items safely to the earth, the goods were packed in, among other things, this flag and various items of clothing. This on the condition that the astronauts would get them back to Earth. “We also signed that flag and added it.”
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