WARSAW, Poland (AP) — What do a wedding necklace, Polish savory dumplings and a photo of Hungary’s first astronaut have in common?
They will all be among personal items taken by astronauts journeying to the International Space Station in the spring.
The four members of the Axiom Mission 4 hail from the U.S., India, Hungary and Poland and will travel on Space X Crew Dragon spaceship in a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency, ESA.
Three of the astronauts held a news conference on Wednesday and said they were having the time of their lives training hard for their travel as well as preparing for the medical and technological experiments they will conduct during the nearly two weeks they will spend there.
ESA head, Josef Aschbacher stressed that space research was “strategic” for many reasons, including security.
Crew members will take items of national and personal significance.
Mission commander, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson, who has rich experience in space travel, is taking the necklace that she wore during her wedding, along with the pictures of the crew and her family.
Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski is taking Polish traditional pierogi, or dumplings, along with poems by Wislawa Szymborska, a Literary Nobel Prize Winner, music by Frederic Chopin a piece of amber and some salt from the historic Wieliczka salt mine. He will also have a small national white-and-red flag that Poland's first man in outer space, Miroslaw Hermaszewski wore on his suit in 1978.
Hungarian Tibor Kapu said he will take a photo of Hungary’s first astronaut, Bertalan Farkas, who traveled into space in 1980, as well as family photos and his country’s national flag.
The mission pilot, Shubhanshu Shukla of India, could not attend the media event, held at the popular Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw.
The Associated Press
