For ATV fans (and who isn’t?), the big news this week will be the launch of ESA astronaut André Kuipers on board a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur, set for 14:15:16 CET (13:15:16 UT), Wednesday, 21 December.

Launch vehicle transfer for the PromISSe Mission

Credit: ESA/S. Corvaja Launch vehicle transfer for the PromISSe Mission: On 19 December 2011, the launch vehicle for the PromISSe Mission was transferred from the Assembly and Testing Facility to the launch site (Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazahkstan ).

You can follow in-depth, up-to-the-minute reports via the excellent PromISSe misson blog (in English) and Andrés’ logboek blog (in Dutch & English).

The latest update gives full details on the countdown schedule.

The PromISSe misson blog editor is Maria Bennett, who oversaw the very first blog hosted by ESA, for Thomas Reiter’s EVA during his 2006 Astrolab mission. She also blogged the Columbus launch and docking and the ATV 1 mission, both in 2008. Make a point to drop by for her insightful updates and follow André’s PromISSe mission just like you’re there!

Mostly in Dutch but since last week also with regular English updates,  Andrés’ logboek (logbook) blog is being edited by our Dutch-speaking colleagues from ESA/ESTEC, and is providing a fabulous look into Andrés’ activities as he has been preparing for the start of his deployment to the ISS. An excellent way to keep up with ESA’s busiest astronaut!