Four space travelers are set to blast off on a commercial mission to the International Space Station (ISS) early Wednesday, June 25, as part of Axiom Space’s fourth human spaceflight mission. They will journey inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket, which is to launch at 2:31 am Eastern Time from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The mission crew comprises of India’s Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, and Hungary’s Tibor Kapu. The mission will be led by Peggy Whitson, an experienced astronaut and the head of human spaceflight at Axiom Space.
Who is Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski?
Dr. Uznanski-Wisniewski is an engineer as well as a scientist who has worked at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. He had worked as an engineer at the Large Hadron Collider and joins the Axiom-4 flight as a mission specialist.
According to Axiom Space, “Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, Poland, is a scientist and engineer who is significantly contributing to the sciences and space exploration. He is a member of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Astronaut Reserve Class of 2022 who rose from a highly competitive group of more than 22,500 candidates who were vying for a spot for potential future missions aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and beyond.”
His educational career began in Łódź, Poland, where he received his M.Sc. with distinction from Łódź University of Technology in 2008. In the same year, he received a second M.Sc. degree from Université de Nantes in France and a Diplôme d’Ingénieur from Polytech’Nantes. He went on to receive his Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Aix-Marseille in the field of radiation-hardened design for space technology.
Uznanski-Wisniewski’s career at CERN also saw him take on roles such as project lead and reliability expert. Between 2018 and 2020, he held the critical position of Engineer in Charge of the Large Hadron Collider.
Who is Tibor Kapu?
Tibor Kapu, also a mission specialist on Axiom-4, is a mechanical engineer with a multidisciplinary background that spans the pharmaceutical, logistics, automotive, and aerospace sectors.
As stated by Axiom Space, “Kapu learned his initial education at Gyula Krúdy High School in Nyíregyháza. He then graduated from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, where he acquired a mechanical engineering degree and then a master’s in polymer technology.”. His repertoire goes beyond books because he worked in the pharmaceutical and logistical sectors, and hybrid car battery development in the automotive sector throughout his professional life. He also worked in Belgium and the United States, where he developed his skills further in emerging technologies such as nanotechnology and brain science.
Over the last few years, Kapu devoted his research to aerospace technology and, more precisely, the shielding of space radiation. This activity lasted until his recruitment in 2023 for Hungary’s HUNOR (Hungarian to Orbit) Astronaut Program, through which he was selected from among 247 candidates.
“This high-profile program is designed to launch a Hungarian astronaut into space, facilitating world-class scientific experiments and tests on board the International Space Station (ISS),” the website of Axiom Space states. For his training, Kapu had to pass through intense physical and mental tests, such as flying aircraft, simulating space conditions, and studying space health, engineering, and history. He was also an active participant in scientific experiments ahead of his mission.
