by The first astronauts for more than 40 years from India, Poland and Hungary arrived at the international space station on Thursday, which had been flied to a private flight from SpaceX.
The four -person crew will spend two weeks in the surrounding laboratory and carry out dozens of experiments. They started on Wednesday in the Kennedy Space Center of NASA.
The most experienced astronaut of America, Peggy Whitson, is the commander of the visiting crew. She works for Axiom Space, the Houston Company, who arranged the charter flight.
In addition to Whitson, the crew includes India’s Shubhanshu Shucla, a pilot in the Indian Air Force; Hungary Tibor Kapu, mechanical engineer; and Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a radiation expert and one of the project managers of the European Space Agency at temporary flight.
Nobody ever visited the international space station from these countries. In fact, the last time someone from these countries was in orbit was in the late 1970s and 1980s and traveled with the Soviets.
“Welcome to the international space station,” drove NASA’s mission control for minutes after the Linkup high above the North Atlantic from Houston.
“It is an honor that you join our outpost for international cooperation and exploration.”
It is the fourth flight to the space station sponsored by Axiom since 2022.
The company is one of several who develop their own space stations due to the start in the coming years.
NASA plans to give up the international space station after more than three decades of business in 2030 and encourages private companies to replace it.
