Mats Persson visits United States to attend launch of Marcus Wandt space mission

On Tuesday 16 January, Mats Persson will visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and meet astronaut Marcus Wandt. He will also attend an evening reception and dinner hosted by the European Space Agency.

On the morning of Wednesday 17 January, Mr Persson will give an opening address on the increasing strategic importance of space at a seminar on the development of the space sector. In the afternoon, he will be in attendance as the crew that includes Mr Wandt is launched from Florida to the International Space Station. The launch is scheduled for 17.11 local time (23.11 Swedish time).

“Following intensive cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Research and public and private sector actors, it was announced in June that Marcus Wandt would be the next Swede in space, and he has now completed training in record time. The fact that we will have another Swedish astronaut in space is a major achievement for Sweden as a space nation, and shows the Government’s high level of ambition with regard to space. It will be incredibly exciting to witness this historic event in person in Florida,” says Mr Persson.

On Thursday 18 January, Mr Persson will travel on to New York. There he will visit Columbia University to discuss international cooperation, academic excellence, STEM research and new technologies.

On Friday 19 January, Mr Persson will have meetings with the Swedish Consulate-General in New York, Business Sweden and the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce. He will also visit Stuyvesant High School (an outstanding school in the areas of mathematics and STEM education), and the Cornell Tech campus to discuss STEM research and the commercialisation of research findings. An informal meeting with the company OpenAI is also planned.