Barring any further delays, the private Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 08:31 CET on Wednesday, 25 June. This marks the seventh rescheduled launch date for the international spaceflight.
Aboard the mission is Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, a Polish scientist and astronaut who could become the second Pole in history to reach space - after Mirosław Hermaszewski’s flight in 1978 - and the first to travel to the International Space Station (ISS).
Poland’s first space science mission joins international crew
Uznański-Wiśniewski will be joined by a diverse crew: mission commander and veteran NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson (USA), pilot Shubhanshu Shukla (India), and Hungarian researcher Tibor Kapu.
The team will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, riding in the Dragon spacecraft, which will dock with the ISS shortly after entering orbit.
The two-week mission is being carried out in partnership with NASA and marks the fourth crewed spaceflight by private firm Axiom Space. A key feature of Ax-4 will be "IGNIS" - Poland’s first technology and science mission in space.
In microgravity conditions aboard the ISS, Uznański-Wiśniewski will conduct a series of experiments developed by Polish research institutions and companies.
His wife, Aleksandra Wiśniewska-Uznańska, was present at the crew’s formal send-off in Florida.
Polish astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski's wife, Aleksandra Wiśniewska-Uznańska, took part in the crew's formal send-off. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański
Back in Poland, the launch will be broadcast live at the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw. Among the guests will be Minister of Development and Technology Krzysztof Paszyk, who will watch the transmission alongside a group of students.
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Source: IAR/PAP/X/@SpaceX