The ambitious space expedition will involve a Hungarian astronaut as part of a four-member international team, representing a collaborative effort between Hungary and its international partners. As per the contract with Axiom Space, the launch window is scheduled from October 2024 to the beginning of 2025.

The swift growth of the space industry has already begun to impact smaller nations like Hungary, making it necessary for them to address the challenge effectively. In response to the industry’s rapid rise, the government released the country’s first space strategy document in 2021.

Hungary as a small country does not make decisions for global order as a whole, but it has a unique message for many other small and medium-sized countries that are in the same situation as Hungary, with the same interests in openness to other countries, connections with other countries, their existing alliances, and which also have an interest in preserving their culture and identity, Gladden Pappin suggests.

The conservative Prime Minister of Italy is aiming to ease the migration pressure on Europe by having the migrants’ transit countries and countries of origin more involved in managing the migration flow. She has already made some headway on this front.