The man set to become Greece’s first astronaut has described his selection as not only an honor but also the realization of a long-held dream.
“It is an honor and a joy to represent Greece in space,” Adrianos Golemis told the AMNA news agency in an interview covering his career to this point, his years of experience as a flight surgeon at the European Space Agency (ESA), and his preparations to participate in the PAM-6 mission to the International Space Station next year.
“Obviously for me, there is an element of a dream, I always wanted to have the opportunity to fly into space, but the feeling is much more intense and profound, because we will be doing this with experiments from Greek universities and companies from our country,” he said.
He added that the purpose of this mission is to bring Greece to the front line and to strengthen the research and innovation sector. “The aerospace sector in Greece is already strong, and it is very pleasing that we will be adding another building block.”
He made special mention of the Ministry of Digital Governance and the Hellenic Space Centre, “which have helped a great deal.”
