Greece's first astronaut is heading to the International Space Station in 2027, and he's already thinking about what it ...

Greece's first astronaut is heading to the International Space Station in 2027, and he's already thinking about what it means back home. Adrianos Golemis, a flight surgeon from Larissa who has spent years working for the European Space Agency, was announced as part of the RAM-6 mission just days ago by the Greek Prime Minister at the International Space Summit in Paris. Golemis will fly as mission specialist aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, launched on a Falcon 9 rocket under a NASA private astronaut mission contracted to company Vast. The mission commander will be French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who has a personal connection to Golemis. Golemis was actually Pesquet's flight doctor on a previous mission, and now the two will fly together. Golemis described it as "a very beautiful coincidence." During the mission, Golemis will carry out scientific experiments on behalf of Greek universities and companies. He highlighted the cancer drug Pembrolizumab as an example of how space research translates directly to medical advances on Earth, explaining that studying how substances behave in microgravity helps improve how treatments are administered to patients. Training begins next week when Golemis travels to the United States to begin preparation with teams from Vast, SpaceX, and NASA. Additional training will also take place in European countries and Japan. He said the hardest part won't be the physical demands, but the schedule and the time away from family. Golemis traced his path from watching shooting stars as a child with his parents in Platamon to working at ESA, describing it as "step by step, always giving everything, but knowing some things are out of our control." The Greek Space Center and the Ministry of Digital Governance were credited with significant support in making the mission possible. #Greece #Space #GreekAstronaut