‘We will present the candidacy of Sławosz Uznański for participation in a space mission in Earth orbit,’ Waldemar Buda, the Minister of Development and Technology Waldemar Buda announced on social media.
He added that the Polish astronaut would take part in a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to test advanced technologies of Polish companies and carry out experiments.
Buda said: ‘A few days ago I signed the agreement, and today I know that it is initialled by the European Space Agency and our partners in the United States. What does this mean? As of today we are sure that the second Polish astronaut in history will participate in a space mission into orbit (...) We will present Sławosz Uznański as our candidate.’
He added that Uznański's candidacy would still need to be approved by the relevant bodies. 'We hope that it will be him. This is a prestigious opportunity for Poland, but also for the entire space industry.’
On August 4, 2023, the Minister of Development and Technology, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Axiom Space (an American space industry company) signed agreements on a flight to the ISS.
In 2023 Poland increased the financial contribution to the ESA by EUR 295 million. Thanks to this, Polish companies will be able to participate in many programs for the development of technologies, products and services in the field of satellite communication, navigation and Earth observation.
Companies from the Polish space sector can submit concepts for experiments to be carried out on the International Space Station. The call for proposals was announced by the European Space Agency in cooperation with the Ministry of Development and Technology and the Polish Space Agency. Applications can be submitted until September 8.
In November 2022, the European Space Agency selected Sławosz Uznański to join ESA Astronaut Reserve. In addition to the 11 reserve astronauts, ESA also selected six primary corps astronauts. Uznański defeated over 22,000 candidates from all over Europe in the 18 months long ESA preliminaries.
Dr. Sławosz Uznański grew up in Łódź, Poland where he received his M.Sc. from the Łódź University of Technology in 2008 (with honours). In the same year, he received an M.Sc. from Université de Nantes (France) and Diplôme d’Ingénieur from Polytech’Nantes. In 2011, he defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Aix-Marseille (with honours). He is the author of a book on radiation effects in electronic circuits and has co-authored more than 50 papers in journals and at scientific conferences. Uznański works as an operator of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). He is also involved in designing radiation-resistant electronics. (PAP)
author: Michał Boroń
mick/ mmu/ kap/
tr. RL
