NEW YORK, January 21 (DPA/EP) –
Four European astronauts, including Spanish-born American astronaut Michael Lopez Alegria, successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) this Saturday, where they were received by the crew.
The team, which traveled on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft ordered by private US company Axiom Space, will remain aboard the ISS for two weeks.
In addition to Lopez Alegria, the missions included Italian Walter Villaday, Swede Marcus Wandt and Alper Gezeravci, who became the first Turkish citizen to travel in space.
The European Space Agency (ESA) said Wandt was the first of a new generation of European astronauts to take part in manned commercial flights through Axiom Space.
Among the 20 experiments they will conduct are the effects of space housing design on astronauts’ stress levels and deciphering changes in cellular structure under zero-gravity conditions.
The trip was organized by Axiom Space in collaboration with NASA and SpaceX, and according to media reports, it cost 50 million euros per passenger.