Frank De Winne training for New Space Station Mission
ESA TV News
ESA astronaut Frank De Winne is currently in training ahead of his long-duration mission to the International Space Station scheduled for May to November 2009.
De Winne was recently at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, to receive training in some of the European experiments he will perform during his stay on the Space Station.
He was accompanied at EAC by his ESA astronaut colleague André Kuipers who is assigned as his back-up for the mission.
This story shows Frank De Winne training with André Kuipers and includes shots from previous missions in space.
For more info on this subject please check the script that is online as a PDF file under :
http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS59930.pdf
A WMV preview clip is online under : http://esa.contentcoders.com/mphi/Frank_De_Winne_TV_28-10-08_wmplow.wmv
More backgroud information can be found on: http://www.esa.int/esaHS/index.html

Frank De Winne prepares for new mission.
10:00:40
With the Columbus laboratory successfully up and running on the International Space Station Belgian ESA Astronaut Frank De Winne will be the second European astronaut to spend 6 months on the ISS. In May 2009, he will fly together with Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS. His back-up for the trip will be Dutch ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers.
Images- Docking of Columbus, images of De Winne and Kuipers entering hanger with Columbus model.
10:01:06
INT: Frank De Winne
""My role aboard the ISS will be of course to conduct all the experiments for the benefit of the European scientists, The ESA experimental programme besides that I will have a lot of operational tasks as well, and for the last few months of my stay I will probably be the commander of the ISS.
10:01:28
Apart from carrying out an extensive scientific programme, during the six month period that he spends in space, De W