On Wednesday, India, Poland, and Hungary launched their first astronauts in over 40 years on a privately funded mission to the International Space Station.
The three nations jointly financed the two-week trip, with Houston-based Axiom Space arranging the mission at a cost exceeding $65 million per astronaut.
SpaceX’s Falcon rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after a two-week delay caused by concerns over a leak at the space station. The capsule carried the three new astronauts — none of whom were born when their countries last sent people to space — along with America’s veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson.
The crew includes Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force pilot; Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer from Hungary; and Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a radiation expert from Poland and occasional project astronaut for the European Space Agency, alongside Whitson.
