There was jubilation in the control room at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida when the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was launched into space at 22:49 Norwegian time. On board the space capsule “Crew Dragon”, sat four astronauts who are on their way out to the International Space Station ISS. Including 43-year-old Swedish-Norwegian Marcus Wandt. He makes history as Norway’s first astronaut in space with Norwegian citizenship. Speaking from the space capsule A few hours after the trip, he gave his first greeting to Earth from space. – Hi all. Absolutely wonderful to be in the room. What a fantastic journey, he says. He says from the space capsule that he expected a lot of power, but maybe not that much. – I did not expect that acceleration and speed. Fantastic. Pure joy, says Wandt. He thought the weightlessness in particular was strange to experience: – And raw. Just floating around and having to reposition yourself no matter what you do, he says. Wandt, who lives in Linköping in Sweden, is half Norwegian, has both Norwegian and Swedish citizenship. His mother is from Toten, and lives in Gjøvik. – If you ask her, I’m pretty much Norwegian, but also if you ask me, he previously told news. He is proud to represent both Sweden and Norway, writes NTB. Wandt is now the third Swede in space. ASTRONAUT: Swedish-Norwegian Marcus Wandt is ready for space. Photo: Axiom Space Two weeks in space The astronauts have a journey of around 36 hours before they reach the space station ISS. They will be there for two weeks where they will carry out various experiments on Swedish and international research on weightlessness. According to SVT, they will, among other things, study how people’s mental and physical health is affected by staying in cramped spaces for long periods. The International Space Station (ISS) Photo: Ap The space station orbits the Earth. The successor to “Mir”, which according to plan crashed in the Pacific Ocean off New Zealand in 2001. A collaborative project between NASA (USA), Roskosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), CSA (Canada) and ESA (Europe). AEB (Brazil) collaborates through NASA. Orbits the Earth at an altitude of 400 kilometers with a speed of 26,000 km/h. Has a crew of six people. 221 people from 18 countries have been on the space station since it was put into use in 2000. See where the space station is right now The journey to the space station is organized by the company Axiom Space. The logistics are handled by Spacex with the space capsule Dragon 2 and the rocket type Falcon 9. The original plan was that the Falcon 9 rocket was to be launched on Wednesday evening, but this was postponed. The team on board “Axiom Mission 3” consists of: Alper Gezeravci, fighter pilot in the Turkish Defense Forces Walter Villadei, pilot and colonel in the Italian Air Force Michael López-Alegría, former NASA astronaut and Commander Marcus Wandt, fighter and test pilot. Facts about the launch “Axiom Mission 3”: Is the first pan-European astronaut mission to the International Space Station The mission is carried out by Axiom Space and is supported by, among others, ESA, the Swedish space agency SNSA and the Swedish aircraft manufacturer Saab Axiom is a commercial company that specializes in to facilitate space travel. SpaceX provides the transport itself, while Axiom organizes the journey and the missions on the space station. The launch takes place with a Crew Dragon spacecraft and a Falcon 9 launch vehicle from SpaceX ESA is doing this to show that short missions in space with quick training time will be useful both for research, education and inspiration Marcus Wandt is launched with three other astronauts. Walter Villadei, pilot on the mission and colonel in the Italian Air Force. Turkish Alper Gezeravci is on board as a mission specialist, and the commander is Michael López-Alegría, former astronaut at NASA. Source: Norwegian Space Center/news Marcus Wandt, Alper Gezeravci, Walter Villadei from Italy and Michael Lopez-Alegria wave to the family after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday. January 18, 2024. Photo: AP – Proud dad Marcus had his family in place at the Kennedy Space Center before leaving for space. He has been in quarantine for the past two weeks, and the children have been able to meet him from a distance twice in the past few days. – I’m proud of dad. It feels surreal. Soon he will go up into space, says Benjamin Wandt to SVT’s Lilla Aktuelt. Wandt was one of over 22,500 people from all over Europe who applied for the astronaut admission to ESA (European Space Agency) in 2022. He has a background as a fighter pilot in the Swedish Air Force and has also been a test pilot for Saab. Danish Andreas Mogensen is all in place in the space station. When Wandt arrives, it will thus be a Scandinavian event. Swedish-Norwegian Marcus Wandt historically became the first astronaut into space with Norwegian citizenship. Photo: Reuters
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Successful launch – first Norwegian into space – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
