Tag: microgravity research

  • Earth views from Cupola during Ignis mission 🌍

    Earth views from Cupola during Ignis mission 🌍

    View of Earth as seen by ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski inside the seven-windowed cupola, the International Space Station’s “window to the world”.

    The European Space Agency-built Cupola is the favourite place of many astronauts on the International Space Station. It serves not only as a unique photo spot, but also for observing robotic activities of the Canadian Space Agency’s robotic arm Canadarm2, arriving spacecraft and spacewalks.

    Sławosz was launched to the International Space Station on the Dragon spacecraft as part of Axiom Mission 4 on 25 June 2025. The 20-day mission on board is known as Ignis.

    During the Ignis mission, Sławosz conducted 13 experiments proposed by Polish companies and institutions and developed in collaboration with ESA, along with three additional ESA-led experiments. These covered a broad range of areas including human research, materials science, biology, biotechnology and technology demonstrations. 

    The Ax-4 mission marks the second commercial human spaceflight for an ESA project astronaut. Ignis was sponsored by the Polish government and supported by ESA, the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MRiT) and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA).

    📹 European Space Agency (ESA)
    📸 ESA – Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski

    #ESA #Earth #Astronaut

  • Sławosz comes home 🧑‍🚀🪂💦

    Sławosz comes home 🧑‍🚀🪂💦

    After 20 days in space, ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and his Axiom Mission 4 crewmates returned safely to Earth on 15 July 2025.

    #Ignis mission highlights:

    🌍 230 orbits around Earth
    📏 + 13 million km travelled
    🧪+ 20 science experiments (13 led by Poland)
    💯 All mission objectives fulfilled
    ⏰ 105 hours of orbital work
    📈 + 25% extra activities completed

    📹 European Space Agency (ESA)
    📸 Axiom Space/SpaceX

    #ESA #Ax4 #Astronaut

  • ‘Zero-G’ science

    ‘Zero-G’ science

    ESA is taking advantage of Novespace’s latest ‘Zero-G’ aircraft to perform a number of experiments in microgravity. Twelve experiments – which include six by professional scientists and six by students as part of ESA’s Fly Your Thesis programme – took to the skies for three series of 31 parabolas off the coast of France. Conditions of microgravity, or weightlessness, are unique for research ranging from fundamental physics, testing Einstein’s weak equivalence principle, to psychology, neuroscience and the deployment of a balloon that may one day make measurements while falling through Mars’ atmosphere.

    More about the Parabolic Flight Campaigns:
    http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Research/Parabolic_flights