ESA Astronaut, Andre Kuipers promotes Dutch Cheese in space

Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers will have a special treat waiting for him in orbit when he arrives in space next month: five kilogrammes of Amsterdam's finest cheese, its maker said Saturday.

The 53-year-old Kuipers is due to blast off on board a Soyuz rocket on December 21 with two other astronauts for a five-month-mission on board the International Space Station.

"Andre is a big fan of our cheese and asked us in a letter to arrange with space authorities to see if we could send up some of his favourite Old Amsterdam," the cheesemaker's spokeswoman Henriette Westland told AFP.

"After numerous emails to NASA and the European Space Agency, they agreed to send up around 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds)," she added.

She said the Dutch traditional snack had to be specially cut and wrapped before being shipped to Houston and then to Kazakhstan, where five kilogrammes were blasted off on board a cargo rocket to the ISS at the end of October.

Another five kilogrammes are expected to go up on another freight rocket from the Baikonur launching site by the end of January, Westland added.

Old Amsterdam cheese is one of the Westland company's best-known export brands and sold in some 70 countries.

Cheese - UK Space Mission unsuccessful

It's Cheese Jim but not as we know it!
In a bizarre story that is greatly influenced by Wallace and Gromit, the UK animated figures, a cheesemaker's stunt to launch a wedge of cheddar cheese into space fell flat on its face after the organisers lost contact with its payload just minutes after lift-off.

The West Country Cheesemakers, who organised the 'mission', attached a 300kg chunk of cheese to a weather balloon, which lifted off from Pewsey, Wilts, at 4am on July 28.

The balloon floated up to the 'edge of space' at 18.6 miles (30km) above sea level, where the 1.6m-wide helium balloon was expected to burst.

The cheesemakers were expecting that the record-breaking capsule would then fall gently down to earth on a special parachute. They had even fitted the capsule with a digital camera to take pictures of the cheese in 'outer space'.

Unfortunately, the plans of mice and men sometimes go astray. The on-board GPS satellite system, which was supposed to track the intergalactic dairy product, failed shortly after take-off.

It is still unclear whether the balloon managed to succeed in its bizarre mission but it was a bold step forward for intergalactic cheese trading.