Slovak Astrobiologist Musilova to Join Crew of European ECM1 Mission

Bratislava, 7 November (TASR) - Slovak astrobiologist Michaela Musilova will be part of the international crew of the European ECM1 mission - the First European Commercial Mission, the mission coordinators have told TASR, adding that this will be a suborbital flight scheduled to take place at the turn of the second and third quarters of 2027. The ECM1 is being developed as a privately funded European commercial suborbital mission with a European crew. Its initiator and leader is Czech television producer Rene Sir. Alongside him, the crew will be made up of Musilova and two Poles. Another member is expected to come from Germany, but, according to the coordinators, they will be presented at a later date. "From the outset, we didn't want to simply put together a group of people who would sit next to one another in the cockpit. We want to create a real team, while making the most of the opportunities offered by a suborbital flight. Michaela brings experience from the scientific community to the ECM1, which is precisely why she's so important to our crew," said Sir. The composition of the ECM1 crew also symbolically ties in with the history of the Interkosmos programme. In 1978, thanks to Vladimir Remek's flight, Czechoslovakia became the third country in the world to send a citizen into space - following the Soviet Union and the United States. Poland and the then German Democratic Republic followed in the same year. Almost 50 years on, the ECM1 is loosely building on this Central European history - this time as a private commercial initiative. Alongside the selection of the crew, discussions are underway in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia regarding scientific and technological experiments for which the suborbital flight profile may be suitable. Musilova is also involved in preparing them. Individual experiments undergo separate expert and technical assessments. Projects that don't yet have the necessary approval must undergo the relevant certification process before they can be included in the flight programme. "We don't want to announce any experiments today that haven't yet gone through the entire approval process. We'll publish them gradually when they are scientifically and technically validated," stated Sir. am/df