Aad is an all-round engineer with extensive experience in the design/development of test facilities and test methodologies, and in the Assembly Integration and Testing (AIT) of complex spacecraft systems, subsystems and units.
In 1971 he graduated from the aeronautical engineering department of the Technische Hoge School in Haarlem, the Netherlands. Since then he has worked at a number of Dutch aerospace companies in roles encompassing many technical disciplines including mechanical, thermal and optical.
Highlights of his career have included developing the test equipment and breadboards for the European Robotic Arm (ERA), which is due to be installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2012 and development work on the Spacelab Airlock, a design that later flew successfully on 16 Space Shuttle missions.
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