Polish astronaut to join multinational crew on International Space Station
Polish astronaut Sławosz Uznański is set to join a multinational crew on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) next year, the Polish Space Agency has announced.
Sławosz UznańskiPAP/Rafał Guz
Uznański wrote in a social media post on Friday that he was moving to Houston to „begin training at Axiom Space, followed by sessions at SpaceX and NASA.”
The Polish mission to the International Space Station is scheduled for 2025 and „will focus on testing Polish technologies and conducting scientific experiments,” Uznański said.
The mission, which will last around 14 days, includes veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson from the United States as the mission commander.
Whitson, 64, a biochemist, has the distinction of being the first woman to command the ISS and holds records for the longest cumulative space time and the most spacewalks by a woman.
She became the oldest woman to fly in space in 2016.
Joining Whitson and Uznański are Shubanshu Shukla from India, a 41-year-old Indian Air Force commander who was part of his country’s first manned spaceflight team; and Tibor Kapu from Hungary, a 33-year-old who was selected in May to participate in a mission aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon.
The mission, dubbed Ax-4, is part of a commercial crew program by Axiom Space.
It marks a significant step for Poland, stemming from a technology mission agreement signed between Poland’s Ministry of Development and Technology and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The Polish Space Agency (POLSA), acting as the executing agency, will focus primarily on experiments developed by the Polish space sector under ESA’s guidance.
The astronauts will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Their stay on the ISS will include a series of experiments tailored to test various space technologies.
Before their departure, the crew must receive approval from the international committee responsible for the ISS, ensuring all international standards and requirements are met.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP
