The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that Sławosz Uznański has started training to participate in a space mission. The Pole is a candidate for a manned flight to the International Space Station (ISS), which is to take place in the second half of 2024.
“On September 1, Sławosz Uznański joined ESA as a project astronaut waiting to fly in a future space mission,” the European Space Agency (ESA) wrote on social media. “We keep our fingers crossed,” she added.
The Pole is undergoing training at the European Astronaut Center (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. This facility plays a key role in supporting astronauts and their families during the preparation and implementation of their space missions.
The Pole undergoes an intensive training program
In November last year, Sławosz Uznański was selected as an ESA reserve astronaut after a long recruitment process in which over 22,500 applicants from ESA member countries applied. On September 1 this year, the Pole joined the European Astronaut Corps. Uznański undergoes an intensive program of familiarization training to meet the high standards required during spaceflight. Sławosz Uznański has experience in space systems engineering, he conducted research on the effects of radiation. Most recently, he was the engineer responsible for CERN’s largest accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider. “I am very happy to have been given the opportunity to take part in ESA’s astronaut training, preparing for future space flights. Space has always been very close to my heart and I have always considered myself a born explorer. In recent years, there has been a huge development in technology and research in low Earth orbit so I am looking forward to extremely exciting times” – commented Uznański, quoted in the ESA communiqué. Sławosz Uznański is a candidate for a manned flight to the International Space Station (ISS). The flight is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2024. The agreement on the flight to the ISS was signed on August 4 this year by the Polish Ministry of Development and Technology, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the American space company Axiom Space. The Polish astronaut selected for the mission is to “focus on technological experiments”.
International Space Station (ISS)Shutterstock
Main photo source: ESA