21 Facts About Wubbo Ockels

Wubbo Johannes Ockels was a Dutch physicist and astronaut with the European Space Agency who, in 1985, became the first Dutch citizen in space when he flew on STS-61-A as a payload specialist.

Wubbo Ockels later became professor of aerospace engineering at Delft University of Technology.

Wubbo Ockels obtained his MSc degree in physics and mathematics in 1973 and subsequently a PhD degree in the same subjects in 1978 from the University of Groningen.

Wubbo Ockels's thesis was based on experimental work at the Nuclear-physics Accelerator Institute in Groningen.

From 1973 to 1978, Wubbo Ockels performed experimental investigations at the Nuclear Physics Accelerator Institute in Groningen.

Wubbo Ockels contributed to the design and construction of position-sensitive charged particle detectors.

Institute, Wubbo Ockels supervised the practical work of first-year physics students at the University of Groningen.

In 1978, Wubbo Ockels was selected by the European Space Agency as one of three European payload specialists to train for the Spacelab 1 mission.

In September 1981 Wubbo Ockels withdrew from training to focus on Spacelab, and did not become a NASA mission specialist.

Wubbo Ockels rejoined the Spacelab 1 crew for training as a back-up payload specialist to operate experiments.

Wubbo Ockels was the first Dutch citizen astronaut, not the first Dutch-born astronaut, as he is preceded by the naturalized American Lodewijk van den Berg, who flew on STS-51-B.

Wubbo Ockels flew as a payload specialist on the crew of STS-61A Challenger.

At mission conclusion Wubbo Ockels had traveled 2.5 million miles in 110 Earth orbits, and logged over 168 hours in space.

Wubbo Ockels was a member of the American Physical Society and the European Physical Society.

In 1992, Wubbo Ockels was appointed part-time professor of aerospace engineering at Delft University of Technology, and promoted to full-time professor in September 2003.

Wubbo Ockels proposed the development of a Superbus, a new method of high speed public transportation by road.

Wubbo Ockels cofounded the sustainable engineering firm "The Green Canals".

In 2009, Wubbo Ockels presented a talk arguing that the notion of time is human-constructed as a result of our interpretation of the effects of gravity.

Wubbo Ockels recovered well and was able to resume his work at the Delft University of Technology.

On 29 May 2013 it was announced that Wubbo Ockels had an aggressive form of kidney cancer with a metastasis in his pleural cavity, and a life expectancy of one to two years.

Wubbo Ockels died from complications of cancer on 18 May 2014.