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Roundup: First Danish astronaut entering space hailed as "milestone"

Xinhua, September 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Danish media gave an in-depth coverage on Wednesday of its astronaut, Andreas Mogensen, who has become the first Dane entering space, calling the event a "major milestone for Denmark."

Mogensen left Earth early Wednesday morning as part of an international crew traveling to the International Space Station (ISS).

Together with Kazakhstan's cosmonaut Aydyn Aimbetov and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, the 38-year-old Dane from Copenhagen was launched in a Russian Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome base in Kazakhstan on a 10-day mission to the ISS, according to Danish news agency Ritzau.

"It is a great historic day and a major milestone for Denmark," Hans Kjeldsen, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Aarhus University, was quoted by local newspaper Politiken as saying.

The purpose of the mission is to deliver the new Expedition crewmember Volkov to the ISS and to undertake testing of the European Space Agency (ESA)'s new Skinsuit, which is designed to minimize the negative effects of weightlessness on the body.

Mogensen will also carry out around 20 other research projects and will launch two small satellites created by Aalborg University to monitor ship traffic in the Arctic.

The Dane's personal items include family photos, a Danish flag, custom-made Lego models as well as an original text by the Danish philosopher Soeren Kierkegaard and a baseball cap, said the weekly newspaper The Copenhagen Post.

"It was one of the most amazing things that I have ever experienced," Mogensen's wife Cecilie Beyer told Danish public broadcaster DR after the launch.

"I started to cry, but I think it was because I was so happy. I could just see that his dream has come true," she added.

Joergen Christensen-Dalsgaard, also a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Aarhus University, was quoted by Politiken as saying that the launch was a "huge event for Denmark and its aerospace."

"It is also an important symbol of what we can and what options we have, even as a small country," Christensen-Dalsgaard said.

Educated at the Copenhagen International School before receiving a Master's in aeronautical engineering at Imperial College London, the Copenhagen native went on to the University of Texas to receive a doctorate in aerospace engineering.

He was selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009 and previously served as an aquanaut for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s NEEMO 19 mission in September 2014.

Mogensen is scheduled to return to Earth on Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft on Sept. 11, with Aimbetov and Expedition 44 Commander Gennady Padalka. Endit