Warsaw (TDI): SpaceX is all set to launch Axiom Mission 4 to International Space Station (ISS) and aboard the mission is the Polish astronaut, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski. He is the second Polish citizen to travel to space.
The mission will dock on 12 June, 2025 and will stay docked to the ISS for fourteen days. Poland is excitedly waiting for the launch moment and people are all praise for Sławosz, who is also carrying symbolic objects with him that represent Polish culture, science, tradition and language.
These include the Polish flag, Baltic amber, salt from the famed Wieliczka Salt Mine, a manuscript of Fryderyk Chopin’s Mazurka in A-flat major and an engraving from Nicolaus Copernicus’s seminal work De revolutionibus.
IGNIS, Poland’s first technological and scientific mission to the International Space Station 🛰️ starts on 10 June 2025 at 2:22 PM CEST. It will feature Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, PhD., a Polish project astronaut of the European Space Agency 🧑🚀 pic.twitter.com/nb1QZ653MQ
— PLinPakistan (@PLinPakistan) June 10, 2025
He will also carry with him the literary works by Nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska, along with a badge worn in 1978 by Mirosław Hermaszewski, who wore it when he became the first Polish in space.
The Ax-4 mission will “realize the return” to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary, with each nation’s first government-sponsored flight in more than 40 years.
IGNIS is Poland’s first technological and scientific mission to the ISS and Sławosz will be aboard as the project astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the mission specialist of Axiom 4. The crew includes three other people:
- Peggy Whitson (the commander), from United States
- Shubhanshu Shukla (the pilot), from India
- Tibor Kapu (another mission specialist), from Hungary
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During the IGNIS mission, the Polish astronaut will carry out 13 experiments proposed by Polish companies and universities and devised in cooperation with ESA.
The vast scope of experiments will encompass studies on astronauts’ health, the microbiome, new materials and technologies, including the use of artificial intelligence.
The Polish astronaut will also run an educational program covering, among other things, engineering projects, competitions, workshops, meetings with experts, and dissemination of educational materials for schools.
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