Following a presentation at the Swedish parliament on 20 March, Sweden’s third astronaut Marcus Wandt was invited to a roundtable discussion hosted by SSC Chairwoman Anna Kinberg Batra and CEO Charlotta Sund.

Present at the meeting were representatives from the Swedish government, the business and trade area, as well as tech and space industry. Swedish astronaut Marcus Wandt started by sharing his experience from the recent journey to the International Space Station, ISS. Among other things, he told the audience about the very detailed preparations, the need for quarantine to avoid bringing any infections or diseases to the ISS and its engineers, as well as the emotions as he began his journey into space.

During the presentation at the Swedish parliament, Marcus Wandt also showed images and films, photographed by him at the ISS. This enabled the audience to get a better understanding of the number of scientific studies being performed at the space station – one of them, a research project on stem cells which was originally tested onboard a sounding rocket launched from Esrange.

He also reflected on society’s growing need for space services, as well as the fast-emerging space rocket industry, not least in the U.S. He concluded that the space industry in Europe has the advantage of a solid and highly developed engineering and technology expertise, which should enable us to be forerunners in the future of space technology and development – continuing to help Earth benefit from Space.