With the help of fellow astronauts and experienced cosmonauts, Tibor Kapo and Gyula Cerini, astronaut candidates from the Hungarian Astronaut to Orbit (HONOR) program, who conducted a video interview for Kossuth Radio from Houston, Axiom Space Base Ax-4, prepare for space travel.
Astronaut candidate training began in August at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The Axiom Space 4 (Ax-4) mission is expected to launch next spring.
The astronaut candidates said their days in Houston are very busy, their training is professional, and their schedules are well planned.
Their training is carried out by three institutions: NASA, Axiom and SpaceX, reserve astronaut Gyula Sereni said in the interview. NASA prepares them specifically for life on the space station, SpaceX is responsible for the preparation related to ascent to the space station, and Axiom is responsible for ensuring additional conditions for the mission. According to Gyula Cerini, home training provides a very good basis for training.
Tibor Capo talked about how when he first walked into the mock-up of SpaceX's Dragon capsule, he found it so cramped, he thought, for example, how they would be able to take off the spacesuit when four people were crammed inside the small space.
Giula Serini noted that an important element of NASA training is preparing for everyday jobs, such as preparing food, washing dishes, using the bathroom, packing, and bedding. These basic things that seem so simple are made much more difficult than before, as they are given 35-step instructions to complete each task.
Tibor Capo believes that the most impressive part of their entire training is that they had to relearn everything from eating to sleeping. He mentioned cleaning as an example. Even vacuuming is a very complicated task in space, as they have to ask permission from the ground crew, although it is important to vacuum the crumbs, because in weightlessness they can cling to the airflow and clog the filters or fly into the eyes of the astronauts.
On board the space station, all basic living conditions that could be considered available on Earth must be created. “So, we need to create an airflow that takes body heat away from us, we need to solve this problem so that the sweat and exhaled vapor also reaches the filtration systems” – The astronaut recounted the challenges.
In response to a question about the meal, Tibor Capo said that there is a menu of 200 items that NASA astronauts can eat on board the space station. The crew must try the food before traveling into space. He noted that their first difficult moment was during training, when they had to taste 70 foods in a row, albeit in small pieces.
In addition to the Hungarian astronaut, the four-person Ax-4 mission crew will also include: American Peggy Whitson, Indian Shuhanshu Shukla, and Polish Slawosz Oznanski. Peggy Whitson will be in command, Shukla will be the pilot, and Oznanski will serve with her as a mission specialist, Tibor Capo said. She praised Commander Peggy Whitson and said that this will be her fifth space flight, as she has spent 675 days in space so far, and has great experience, experience, and work ethic.
Speaking about the training, Gyula Sereni also mentioned that most of their training is the same as with Tibor Capo, and he also learns all the experiences so that he can provide support from the ground during the mission.
In response to a question, Tibor Capo also spoke about the most dangerous moments of the mission, mentioning first the launch, then the landing, and third the docking. Referring to docking, he said it is a long process, which can take at least 7 but up to 48 hours for the space capsule to reach the station, so it is possible to drift in space for two days.
The interview also revealed that the astronaut candidates were not “Cut off a centimeter” Until the launch, but they are focusing on everyday life, as their training program is very busy. Gyula Sereni will conduct a test on emergency protocols next week, and Tibor Capo will continue his preparations with training related to the rocket, the capsule and the space suit.
The Ax-4 mission will launch into outer space from Florida – according to plans scheduled for the spring – on SpaceX's Falcon-9 launch vehicle, aboard the Dragon spacecraft module, and the four astronauts are expected to spend 14 days aboard the International Space Station.
Radio Kossuth will follow the journey of the Honor program astronauts until the moment of launch. The interview, which lasted more than an hour with the two astronauts on Sunday, is Irány az ýur! It was announced on the programme
