SpaceX launches astronauts from India, Hungary and Poland to space station on privately funded trip

India, Poland and Hungary launched their first astronauts in more than 40 years Wednesday, sending them on a private flight to the International Space Station.

The three countries shared the tab for the two-week mission. Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the deal, put the ticket price at more than $65 million per customer.

SpaceX’s Falcon rocket blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center two weeks late because of space station leak concerns. The capsule on top carried not only the three newcomers to space — none of whom were alive when their countries’ first astronauts launched — but America’s most experienced astronaut, Peggy Whitson.

Besides Whitson, the crew includes India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, a pilot in the Indian Air Force; Hungary’s Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer; and Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a radiation expert and one of the European Space Agency’s project astronauts sometimes pressed into temporary duty.

The astronauts are due to arrive at the orbiting lab the next morning.

In addition to dozens of experiments, the astronauts are flying food that celebrates their heritage: Indian curry and rice with mango nectar; spicy Hungarian paprika paste; and freeze-fried Polish pierogies.

Hungary’s first astronaut, Bertalan Farkas, cheered on Kapu from the launch site.

“For such a small country as Hungary, it is really important to collaborate in a peaceful international space cooperation,” Farkas told The Associated Press. He called it “one of the most important moments” of his life.

Farkas launched with the Soviets in 1980, taking along a teddy bear in a cosmonaut suit that went back up with Kapu. India and Poland’s original astronauts also launched with the Soviets in the late 1970s and 1980s.

While others born in India and Hungary have flown in space before — including NASA astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who died aboard the shuttle Columbia in 2003, and two-time space tourist Charles Simonyi, of Microsoft fame — they were U.S. citizens at the time of launch.

It was Axiom’s fourth chartered flight to the space station since 2022 and Whitson’s second time flying as an Axiom crew commander and chaperone. The trip caused her to miss her induction into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame late last month, since she was in quarantine before the flight. Whitson joined Axiom after retiring from NASA nearly a decade ago and has logged almost two years in orbit over her career.

It’s all part of NASA’s push to open space — moon included — to private businesses. Axiom is among several U.S. companies planning to launch their own space stations in the next few years. The goal is for them to be up and running before the international station comes down in 2031 after more than three decades of operation.


(AP Photo John Raoux)