Surprise news told that one of the ESA reserve astronauts, Marcus Wandt, 43, is training for his spaceflight in November. He'll fly as a crew member of Axiom-3 mission, now planned for November 2023.
His flight is organised by the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA) and financed by SNSA and Swedish industry, including Saab. Wandt has been working for Saab as the Gripen head test pilot.
Wandt was selected in November 2022 as a member of the ESA astronaut reserve after a year-long selection process. The 2022 ESA recruitment campaign received over 22 5000 applications from across its Member States.
Now SNSA and ESA are cooperating to support Marcus’s mission using this commercial fast-track.
In space, Wandt will be met by his Danish colleague Andreas Mogensen, who'll be on a long-duration mission on ISS. Wandt's mission name Muninn has been also linked with Mogensen's Huginn: Muninn and Huginn are the two ravens protecting the god Odin in Norse mythology and together they symbolise the human mind.
Read more from ESA (New_ways_to_space and Muninn_mission_patch_and_name) or from the SNSA (in Swedish) Den svenska ESA-astronauten Marcus Wandt får resa till den internationella rymdstationen.