Astronauts return after historic private space mission

Technology Jul 14, 2025

India, Poland, and Hungary just saw their first astronauts in over 40 years come back safely from the International Space Station.
The mission was a team-up with Axiom Space and ended with a splashdown near Southern California on July 1, 2023, thanks to a SpaceX capsule.

Mission cost and cultural moments

While on the ISS, the astronauts ran science experiments and connected with leaders and students back home.
There were cool cultural moments too—like Poland's Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski bringing freeze-dried pierogies to space.
Each country invested over $65 million to make it happen. This mission is also part of NASA's bigger plan with Axiom to build private space stations.