Sunday marked Uznański-Wiśniewski’s final full day aboard the International Space Station (ISS), POLSA confirmed. All priority goals of the IGNIS scientific and technological mission have been successfully completed in full.
According to POLSA’s latest report, approximately 132 hours over the past two weeks were dedicated to fulfilling European Space Agency (ESA) objectives, many of which were part of the Polish-led IGNIS mission. Including time contributed by members of Expedition 73, this total reached approximately 145 hours.
Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski himself devoted 95 hours to these efforts. This included work on 12 out of 13 Polish experiments (one is primarily conducted on Earth) and four ESA experiments. In addition to his scientific duties, he also carried out educational and outreach activities. Other members of the Ax-4 crew also contributed to Polish experiments.
The Polish astronaut spent another 5.5 hours conducting Hungarian experiments and 4.5 hours on Axiom Communications tasks. In total, he spent 105 hours carrying out mission activities—62.4% of which were directly focused on science and technology programs.
Axiom Space, the primary operator of the mission, announced that on Monday at 3:00 PM Central Time (10:00 PM in Poland), CNN International will air an interview with the Ax-4 crew. The astronauts will share their experiences and accomplishments from the mission.
The return journey to Earth is scheduled to begin that same day. At around 10:55 AM, the hatch of the Dragon Grace capsule will be closed. Roughly two hours later, at 1:05 PM, the spacecraft is expected to undock from the ISS.
Dragon Grace will orbit the Earth before reentering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
Following the splashdown, Uznański-Wiśniewski will travel to Cologne, Germany, where ESA’s European Astronaut Centre is located. There, he will undergo post-mission health monitoring at the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) Envihab facility. ESA’s space medicine team will closely monitor his physical condition as he readjusts to Earth’s gravity.
Source:
