Adrianos Golemis is set to become Greece’s first astronaut, subject to approval by the space station partners. The European Space Agency has signed an agreement on behalf of Greece with the US company Vast. Vast plans the mission to the International Space Station for 2027, the company announced on Wednesday.
Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the deal on stage with French president Emmanuel Macron. They spoke at the International Space Summit in Paris. The flight, called Vast-PAM-1, is part of the sixth private astronaut mission to the station. It runs in partnership with NASA. SpaceX will provide transport on a Dragon spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket.
The crew
Golemis, who has worked as a flight surgeon for ESA, is to serve as mission specialist. He is expected to join two ESA colleagues. Thomas Pesquet of France has been named commander. Aleš Svoboda of the Czech Republic, an ESA project astronaut, is slated to serve as pilot. According to the announcement, the name of the final crew member will follow soon.
His place depends on review and approval by the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel. The panel decides by consensus among the five station partners. They are NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
