Polish astronaut returns home after post-spaceflight rehabilitation
Polish astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski landed in Warsaw on Thursday after a 20-day space mission as part of the Ax-4 mission followed by a multi-day rehabilitation period in Germany.
Uznanski-Wisniewski arrived at Warsaw Chopin Airport shortly before noon local time, according to PAP, where he received a warm welcome from around 100 supporters who welcomed him with banners, Polish flags, and various symbols of support. The initiative was organised by Karol Wojcicki, a prominent figure in the promotion of astronomy in Poland.
In the afternoon, the astronaut is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, followed by a press briefing.
Prior to his arrival in Poland, Uznanski-Wisniewski underwent a week-long recovery period in Germany at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, which is part of the European Space Agency (ESA), where he serves as a project astronaut. In Germany, the Pole's health and well-being were monitored by the ESA's space medicine team. He underwent rehabilitation at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine's (DLR) "Envilab," the facility's medical research centre.
Uznanski-Wisniewski will spend a week in Poland before later flying back to the United States.
On July 15, the Pole and three other astronauts, Peggy Whitson from the US, Shubhanshu Shukla from India and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, following the crew's 18-day stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and a total of 20 days in space.
The spaceflight under the Ax-4 mission was coordinated by the US space agency NASA, US space infrastructure developer Axiom Space, and US billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX, which provided the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft that took the astronauts to the ISS, where they conducted multiple experiments.
Uznanski-Wisniewski, aged 41, became the second Pole to travel to space and the first to set foot on the ISS.
(PAP)
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