The crew of the third Axiom mission has been announced, and among the astronauts there is also an Italian colonel of the Italian Air Force, Walter Villadei.
Axiom Space has announced the four-member crew that will spend up to 14 days aboard the Space Station during the Ax-3 mission. The crew includes Swedish ESA astronaut Marcus Wandt, who will travel to the International Space Station on the Axiom 3 (Ax-3) mission no earlier than January 2024.
The Ax-3 mission will be launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft bound for the International Space Station, scheduled to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. Marcus, the European Space Agency explains, will serve as a mission specialist under the command of Michael López-Alegría, Axiom Space's chief astronaut, who represents both the United States and Spain as a dual citizen. The other two members of the Ax-3 crew are Walter Villadei, a colonel in the Italian Air Force and the mission's pilot, and mission specialist Alper Gezeravci of Turkey.
The Italian Defense and Air Force will thus be on board the Ax-3 mission of Axiom Space, scheduled for launch no earlier than January 2024 and which will carry Colonel Walter Villadei to the International Space Station together with an entirely European crew.
“The presence of an Italian officer on board the mission is a fundamental step in the development of the Italian strategy for Space, in which the Defense shares and supports the efforts of the Government, institutions and companies of the country” commented the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, adding that “this guarantees the projection of Italy towards an increasingly active presence in the field of national defense and security while seizing, at the same time, the opportunities offered by the New Space Economy”.
This activity, a note underlines, represents for Italy a privileged opportunity to continue to promote its commitment to safe and effective access to Space, which constitutes a natural expansion of the areas of competence of the Air Force. The mission will allow Italy to specialize and further enhance national skills in the Space domain, also thanks to collaboration with the academic, industrial and business worlds.
Ax-3 will also be the first commercial human space mission with an astronaut sponsored by the European Space Agency. The mission of the Swede Marcus Wandt, called Muninn, is in fact supported by the ESA and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA).
“ESA is supporting a new generation of space explorers who are exploiting commercial access to space with new ideas, concepts and research. More versatile human access to space will fuel Europe’s economy and knowledge beyond Earth,” said Daniel Neuenschwander, Director of Human and Robotic Exploration at the European Space Agency.
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