Astronaut Lodewijk van den Berg, First Dutch-Born Person In Space, Passes Away At 90

Lodewijk van den Berg was a chemical engineer who flew on a Space Shuttle Challenger mission in 1985, as a payload specialist.

Van den Berg flew on the STS-51B  (Space Transportation System) Challenger mission, which started on April 29, 1985, and ended on May 6, 1985. STS-51B was also called the Spacelab-3 mission. ( Image Source :ESA )

Astronaut Lodewijk van den Berg, who was the first Dutch-born person in space, passed away at 90 years of age on October 16, 2022. He was a chemical engineer who flew on a Space Shuttle Challenger mission in 1985, as a payload specialist.

Born March 24, 1932, in Sluiskil, the Netherlands, van den Berg was a naturalised American and no longer a Dutch citizen at the time of flight. 

ESA is saddened by the passing of Lodewijk van den Berg, a Dutch-born American chemical engineer who flew on a 1985 Space Shuttle Challenger mission as a Payload Specialist. https://t.co/oAz6SfyA7X

— ESA (@esa) October 18, 2022

Lodewijk van den’s early life and education

He received a master of science in chemical engineering from Technical University, Delft, The Netherlands, in 1961. After this, he received a master of science in applied science from the University of Delaware in 1972. Then, he received a doctor of philosophy in applied science from the University of Delaware in 1975. 

Van den Berg had over 20 years of research and management experience in preparation of crystalline materials, according to NASA. He conducted research on the growth of single crystals of chemical compounds and investigated associated defect chemistry and electronic properties. 

After completing his PhD, van den Berg joined EG&G Corporation, a US national defence contractor in Goleta, California. There, van den Berg was responsible for the operation of a crystal growing facility that produces various kinds of crystals through vapour transport methods. 

He was a co-investigator on the Spacelab-3 mission Vapor Crystal Growth System (VCGS) experiment, and was responsible for the crystal growth aspects of the experiment. 

Lodewijk van den Berg's astronaut career

Van den Berg flew on the STS-51B  (Space Transportation System) Challenger mission, which started on April 29, 1985, and ended on May 6, 1985. STS-51B was also called the Spacelab-3 mission.

The mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, was the first operational Spacelab mission. A seven-man crew was launched aboard the Challanger spacecraft as part of the mission. The crew conducted investigations in crystal growth and drop dynamics. At the conclusion of the mission, van den Berg had travelled over 2.9 miles in 110 Earth orbits, and recorded more than 168 hours in space.