The Dragon spacecraft, carrying four astronauts including Uznański-Wiśniewski, completed its journey to the ISS after more than 24 hours in orbit.
Launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Wednesday morning, the capsule reached low Earth orbit minutes later, cruising at nearly 27,000 km/h.
Final checks for structural stability and airtight seals were completed ahead of hatch opening at 14:10 CET, followed by a welcome ceremony scheduled for 14:40.
New crew aboard ISS
The four-member Axiom-4 crew - including Poland’s Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski - boarded the International Space Station on Thursday at around 14:25 CEST, nearly two hours after their Dragon spacecraft, Grace, docked.
Uznański-Wiśniewski (Poland/ESA), Peggy Whitson (USA), Tibor Kapu (Hungary), and Shubhanshu Shukla (India) joined the seven astronauts already on board the ISS.
The docking marked the end of a journey that began over 30 hours earlier with a Falcon 9 launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The science-focused mission is expected to last between two and three weeks.
Uznański-Wiśniewski, who hails from Łódź in central Poland, is taking part in the IGNIS mission - a Polish-led technological and scientific programme.
Over the coming days, he will conduct 13 microgravity experiments developed by Polish companies, aimed at testing innovative technologies and concepts in space.
The mission also includes 30 educational and outreach demonstrations, as well as a live radio link with amateur operators back home in Poland.
The SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts, including Poland’s Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, has successfully docked with the International Space Station. Photo: NASA/PAP/Radek Pietruszka
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Source: NASA/PAP/X/@Space_Station/@POLSA_GOV_PL