Czechia to send astronaut to space

The Czech government has announced that after close to half a century, Czechia will have another astronaut in space. The man preparing for the mission is Czech fighter pilot Aleš Svoboda from the Czech Army’s Tactical Air Force Base in Čáslav. In 2022 he succeeded in the European Space Agency's selection procedure and became a member of the reserve astronaut team. The government received an offer to send him on a space mission last year, but considered the project too costly. Now it has agreed to provide the finances. Svoboda will be the second Czech astronaut in space after Vladimir Remek who went up on a Russian Sojuz flight in 1978.