International Space Station welcomes its first astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA: A flight carrying the first astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary in more than 40 years arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday, transported by SpaceX on a private mission.
The four-strong crew spent two weeks at the orbiting laboratory, conducting dozens of experiments. They had launched on Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre.
They were commanded by Peggy Whitson, the United States’ most experienced astronaut, who works for Axiom Space, the Houston firm that chartered the flight. The team also included Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force; Tibor Kapu of Hungary, a mechanical engineer; and Sławosz Uznanski-Wiśniewski of Poland, a radiation expert serving as an ESA project astronaut on temporary duty.
No astronauts from India, Poland or Hungary had previously visited the station; the last departures from those countries into orbit were in the late 1970s and 1980s aboard Soviet spacecraft.
“Welcome aboard the International Space Station,” NASA’s Mission Control radioed from Houston minutes after docking above the North Atlantic. “It is an honour to have you join our outpost of international co-operation and exploration.”
It was the fourth Axiom-sponsored flight since 2022. Axiom is among several companies developing commercial space stations set to launch in the coming years. NASA plans to retire the International Space Station in 2030 after more than three decades of operations, encouraging private ventures to succeed it.
By RSS/AP
