Polish Dumplings Will be Part of Upcoming Space Station Mission
By Monika Scislowska
U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson, left, commander of the Ax-4 scientific space mission, poses with crew members Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, center, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary during a media event where they talked about their preparations, at the Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — What do a wedding necklace, Polish savory dumplings and a photo of Hungary’s first astronaut have in common?
They will all be among personal items taken by astronauts journeying to the International Space Station in the spring. The date has not yet been set.
The four members of the Axiom Mission 4 hail from the U.S., India, Hungary and Poland and will travel on Space X Crew Dragon spaceship in a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency, ESA.
At a news conference Wednesday, three of the astronauts said they were having the time of their lives, training hard for their travel as well as preparing for the medical and technological experiments they will conduct during the nearly two weeks they will spend in space.
“We have to remind ourselves that space flight is a risky and serious business but it’s also fun and, next to space flight, the training for a space flight is the next best thing, so we are having a time of our lives,” the mission pilot, Tibor Kapu, said in English.
Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski said the hardest parts of the training were the “waiting and the uncertainty” as well as being away from home and not having “too much family time.”
ESA head Josef Aschbacher stressed that space research was “strategic” for many reasons, including security.
Crew members will take with them items of national and personal significance.
U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson, the Mission commander, who has a doctorate in biochemistry, is taking the necklace that she wore at her wedding, along with photos of the crew and her family.
Uznański-Wiśniewski is taking freeze-dried Polish traditional pierogi, or dumplings, along with poems by Wisława Szymborska, a Nobel literature laureate; music by Frédéric Chopin; a piece of amber; and some salt from the historic Wieliczka salt mine. He will also have a small national white-and-red flag that Poland's first man in outer space, Mirosław Hermaszewski, wore on his suit in 1978.
Tibor Kapu, of Hungary, said he will take a photo of his country's first astronaut, Bertalan Farkas, who traveled into space in 1980, as well as family photos and the Hungarian flag.
He said his fascination with space came from the Star Wars movies. For Whitson it was the “real-life lunar landing” in 1969 by the U.S. Apollo 11 mission, while Uznański-Wiśniewski felt drawn by the coincidence of his birthdate, April 12, the day Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made the first crewed flight into space in 1961.
The mission pilot, Shubhanshu Shukla of India, could not attend the media event, held at the popular Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw, with the participation of Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The unique experience of being in outer space forms a bond for crews, said Whitson, who has spent 675 days in outer space, more than any other American, and has also served as ISS commander.
“I find that space is very much a place where you get a different perspective” in which you see Earth “in this vastness of space and you appreciate this perspective of the fact that our planet is basically like spaceship Earth and we need to take care of it. It is very precious to us,” Whitson said.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to block states from regulating artificial intelligence. He argues that heavy regulations could stifle the industry, especially given competition from China. Trump says the U.S. needs a unified approach to AI regulation to avoid complications from state-by-state rules. The order directs the administration to draw up a list of problematic regulations for the Attorney General to challenge. States with laws could lose access to broadband funding, according to the text of the order. Some states have already passed AI laws focusing on transparency and limiting data collection.
Waymo's self-driving taxis have been in the spotlight for both negative and positive reasons. This week, the automated ride-hailing taxis went viral after a San Francisco woman gave birth inside a Waymo taxi while on her way to the hospital. A Waymo spokesperson on Wednesday confirmed the unusual delivery. It said the company's rider support team detected unusual activity inside the vehicle and alerted 911. The taxi arrived safely at the hospital before emergency services. Waymo's popularity is growing despite heightened scrutiny following an illegal U-turn and the death of a San Francisco cat. The company, owned by Alphabet, says it is proud to serve riders of all ages.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
The end of 2025 is almost upon us. And it’s time to unpack Spotify Wrapped. On Wednesday, the music streaming giant delivered its annual recap — giving its hundreds of millions of users worldwide a look at the top songs, artists, podcasts and other audio they listened to over the past year. Spotify isn’t the only platform to roll out a yearly glimpse of data collected from consumers’ online lives. But since its launch about a decade ago, Wrapped has become one of the most anticipated. And Spotify is billing the 2025 edition to be the biggest yet, with a host of new features it hopes may also address some disappointments users had last year.
