ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt arrives at NASA’s Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, on 17 January 2024, after spending two weeks in quarantine ahead of his first spaceflight. Marcus is part of Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) alongside Walter Villadei from Italy, Alper Gezeravcı from Türkiye and Michael López-Alegría, representing both USA and Spain as a dual-citizen.
The Ax-3 launch is scheduled for 18 January at 16:49 local time (21:49 GMT/22:49 CET). During their journey on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the orbital outpost Marcus and Alper will serve as mission specialists, Walter will be the crew’s pilot and Michael will be commander.
Marcus is the first of a new generation of European astronauts to fly on a commercial human spaceflight opportunity with Axiom Space. His mission is supported by ESA and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA). The mission, known as Muninn, will officially begin once he enters the Station. The crew onboard will welcome the Ax-3 astronauts, including ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen. Andreas is the current commander of the Space Station. This will be the first time two Scandinavians live and work together in space.
Marcus will devote much of his time to scientific activities and technology demonstrations that could shape the way we live and work on Earth. In total, he will run around 20 experiments during the two-week mission. Marcus 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.