CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: The first astronauts in more than 40 years from India, Poland and Hungary arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday, ferried there by SpaceX on a private flight.
The crew of four will spend two weeks at the orbiting lab, performing dozens of experiments. They launched Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
America’s most experienced astronaut, Peggy Whitson, is the commander of the visiting crew. She works for Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the chartered flight.
Besides Whitson, the crew includes India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, a pilot in the Indian Air Force; Hungary’s Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer; and Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a radiation expert and one of the European Space Agency’s project astronauts on temporary flight duty.
No one has ever visited the International Space Station from those countries before. The time anyone rocketed into orbit from those countries was in the late 1970s and 1980s, traveling with the Soviets.
Speaking in both English and their native languages, the new arrivals shared hugs and handshakes with the space station’s seven full-time residents, celebrating with drink pouches sipped through straws. Six nations were represented: four from the US, three from Russia and one each from Japan, India, Poland and Hungary.
“We have so many countries at the same time on the space station,” Kapu said, adding that seven of the 11 astronauts are first-time space fliers “which also tells me how much space is expanding.”
Added Uznanski-Wisniewski: “We will all try to do the best representing our countries.” Shukla rated the experience so far as “fantastic ... wonderful.”
The space station’s commander, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, said he was happy to finally see their smiling faces after “waiting for you guys so long.” Whitson also made note of the lengthy delay and preflight quarantine.
To stay healthy, the four newcomers went into quarantine on May 25, stuck in it as their launch kept getting delayed. The latest postponement was for space station leak monitoring, NASA wanted to make sure everything was safe following repairs to a longtime leak on the Russian side of the outpost.
It’s the fourth Axiom-sponsored flight to the space station since 2022. The company is one of several that are developing their own space stations due to launch in the coming years. NASA plans to abandon the International Space Station in 2030 after more than three decades of operation, and is encouraging private ventures to replace it.
International Space Station welcomes its first astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary
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International Space Station welcomes its first astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary
- The crew of four will spend two weeks at the orbiting lab, performing dozens of experiments.
- ISS currently has 11 astronaut on board, with Japan’s Takuya Onishi as commander
Tunisian filmmaker wins $1 million AI Film Award
DUBAI: The $1 million AI Film Award was given to Tunisian filmmaker Zoubeir Jlassi for his film “Lily” during the fourth edition of the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai.
The prize was awarded by Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, chairperson of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority.
The award, organized by the summit in partnership with Google Gemini, was presented as part of the gathering that focuses on the content creation economy. The event, that ran from Jan. 9–11, brought together more than 15,000 content creators and influencers, alongside over 580 speakers and 150 CEOs under the theme “Content for Good.”
The AI Film Award received 3,500 film submissions. Entries underwent technical evaluation with Google Gemini to ensure at least 70 percent of the production used generative AI tools.
Following jury selection and public voting, “Lily” emerged as the winner from a final group of five nominees, which included “Portrait No. 72,” “Cats Like Warmth,” “HEAL,” and “The Translator.”
