Hungarian mechanical engineer Tibor Kapu, aged 32, was selected from 240 applicants to go on the next Ax-4 mission to the International Space Station, where he will spend two weeks.
“After more than 45 years, Hungary will soon have an astronaut again,” Portfolio.hu. Electrical engineer Gyula Cserényi, 35, will remain on the ground as a reserve astronaut.
Ax-4 is a cooperation between NASA and private companies Axiom Space and SpaceX. Some 60 experiments will be conducted, the most conducted on an Axiom mission to date, focused on a future private space station and the physical impact of longer manned space flights, such as to Mars.
This mission had been scheduled for takeoff from Kennedy Space Station in late 2024 or early 2025, but was postponed, first due to weather and now indefinitely due to an oxygen leak on the SpaceX rocket and other technical problems on ISS.
The Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) program was launched in 2021, and the recruitment process then started for the next Hungarian research astronaut, notes Portfolio.
Training in Houston began in August 2024 for both Kapu and Cserényi. Kapu will serve as mission specialist along with Polish Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewsk and be joined by American commander Peggy Whitson and Indian pilot Shubanshu Shukla.
American and Russian experts have been continuously working to fix the issue on the ISS to make sure the station can host additional astronauts.
The HUNOR research program, based on input from several Hungarian universities and companies will feature experiments to study the behavior of certain human bacterial, viral and fungal microbiomes under space conditions; nanofiber ophthalmic implants in microgravity; the defense mechanisms of fruit flies against radiation-induced DNA damage; the effects of space travel on 3D-printed materials; and upper atmosphere thunderstorms.
The post After nearly half a century, another Hungarian will be going to space appeared first on Remix News.
Remix News
