When the giant Soyuz-U rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on March 2, 1978, not only Russia’s Alexey Gubarev, but also Czechoslovakia’s Vladimír Remek crouched in the tiny capsule above him. Forty-five years have passed since then. And it was also the first time – and so far the last – that someone of Czech origin looked into space. That could change next year.

How he said Czech television, the country accepted an offer as part of the private Axiom mission to send a person not only into orbit, but also to the International Space Station (ISS). A Czech astronaut also gets to fly for the first time on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon ship. That could happen as early as next year. This is a mission completely outside the framework of the European Space Agency, of which the Czech Republic is also a part and in its selection process last year. military pilot Aleš Svoboda was successful.

Only problem? Money. Spaceflight under Axiom does not have the parameters of professional NASA or ESA missions, but is a rapidly growing segment of space tourism. So, if the country wants to send our man into space, it will have to collect about a billion crowns. Not an easy task at a time when the government is trying to save if possible.

Defense Minister Jana Černochová therefore for CT He said that his party could participate in this amount if the private sector also participated in the financing. Transport Minister Martin Kupka also welcomed the idea, whose agenda includes all Czech space activities. It is not yet clear who the state-supported astronaut is, or what exactly he is required to do in orbit. The government should make a decision in the coming weeks.

As crazy as it is to spend a billion a year in space at a time of record national budget deficits, the fact is that it is possible to think of such spending as an investment. For example, NASA regularly report, that its activities have a significant and positive economic impact throughout the United States. Even if it’s not clear what the practical mission of space tourism could bring back, it could at least have great symbolic and inspirational value.

Axiom Space is an American space company founded in 2016 with the aim of facilitating private flights into outer space. Since last year, thanks to ships and rockets from SpaceX, SpaceX has started transporting people into orbit and so far has completed two missions: one for seventeen days, the other for ten days. In addition to the space force, an Israeli and two Saudi citizens have joined the crew. The next mission with Sweden and Turkey is planned for November, the Czech Republic could see orbit in its fourth mission overall next year.

Outside of the Axiom Space initiative, another Czech military pilot, Captain Aleš Svoboda, has the opportunity to become an astronaut. Last November, he succeeded in the European Space Agency’s selection of new astronauts. For the first time, a Czech citizen was elected to the same position, this time from more than twenty-two thousand candidates. Svoboda met all the requirements for space flight, however, he was the “only” member of the astronaut reserve team.