Lodewijk van den Berg

Who was the very first astronaut born in the Netherlands? No, it wasn’t Wubbo Ockels or André Kuipers—it was Lodewijk van den Berg. Born in Sluiskil, Zeeland, in 1932, Lodewijk studied chemical engineering in Delft and quickly became an expert in crystal growth
When Lodewijk asked NASA if crystals could be grown in space, they gave him the chance to find out—by doing it himself aboard a space shuttle. However, first he had to move to America and become a U.S. citizen.
On April 29, 1985, Lodewijk was launched aboard the space shuttle Challenger (STS-51B) for the first flight of the European space laboratory, Spacelab. Over the course of seven days, he completed 110 orbits of Earth, traveling more than 4.6 million kilometers

Did you know this about Lodewijk ?

• NASA asked Louis to nominate eight crystal experts who could fly to space as astronauts. He only knew seven and put himself eighth on the list. During the applications, he turned out to be the best candidate. That is how he became an astronaut.

• A secondary school in Terneuzen is named after him: the Lodewijk College.

• He was 53 years old when he flew his space mission. This made him one of the oldest rookies NASA has ever had.

• In space, he did experiments with crystals. Because in weightless conditions, you can grow crystals ten times purer than on Earth.

• He continued to make crystals all his life, something he often compared to gardening in interviews.

• After his flight, Lodewijk travelled to the Netherlands every two years to visit friends and family.

• Lodewijk died in 2022 at the age of 90. But he is forever floating around in space as asteroid 11430 Lodewijkberg.