"Space exploration suits you well," Tibor Kapu said at Budapest Airport after returning from the United States where he had been rehabilitating after having spent more than two weeks in space. The astronaut was flown home by a plane belonging to the Hungarian Armed Forces. After some brief flag-waving, although visibly tired, he spent an hour answering questions from journalists.

"There were many things I expected upon my return from space, but hearing this two days after coming back was one of the most surprising things ever," Kapu said when asked what he thought about the fact that the 21 Research Center had polled people on him as a potential candidate for several political parties. "I haven't thought about it at all, and I haven't been approached about anything like that," he added. He said that he and other members of the HUNOR program would now embark on a tour of the country to recount their experiences of space travel and the training.

When Telex asked him if he was surprised by Viktor Orbán's questions during their conversation, which started out apolitical but then took a decidedly political turn, (the Hungarian PM had, among others, asked Kapu whether he could see "the war" from the International Space Station.) he said that NASA has strict rules about what can and cannot be discussed in such situations.

“When I spoke with the Prime Minister, which was a huge honor and the first interview of this kind I gave from up there, I remember that the first eight to ten minutes were very pleasant, and we both tried to insert as much humor as possible into our questions and answers. What followed was quite a surprise to me, but I think we both handled the task well.”

He noted that the scientific experiments exceeded all expectations and that the success rate of the Hungarian scientific portfolio exceeded the average success rate of NASA experiments. "Every time I performed a visually spectacular or significant experiment at the space station, my colleagues who worked with me up there would always tell each other with appreciation, 'Look what the Hungarians have brought here. ' As nice as it would have felt, no one said, 'Look what Tibi brought. ' Instead, they said, 'Look what the Hungarians brought up here,'" he said.

He added that the evaluation of a significant portion of the scientific experiments is only just beginning, and that for many of them, it will be several months before the results are available, but overall, he considered the work to be successful. “We, Hungarians committed to providing 25 of the 60 experiments we took up with Axiom-4, which is an incredibly impressive number in my opinion. When one considers that more than a third of the experiments would be covered by one of the four astronauts, it is a little daunting at first, which is how I felt too. But I can honestly say that it was not only the number of experiments that left a lasting impression, but also their quality.”

According to Kapu, every experiment they took to the ISS focused on solving a future problem. “All of the experiments we took up there were aimed at addressing the biggest questions of long-term space travel and finding answers to them. This means that all of these experiments can be further developed, so we will be having a lot of discussions, and we have already started thinking about how to move forward with them—not just with the evaluations, but also with the next experiments, if there will be a next round, and we will move forward with this science, with how we should go about that.”

As an example, he mentioned that the dosimeter they took up to the space station was a technological demonstration. "One of the peculiarities of the space industry is that one only has real value on the market when one has proven that their device developed for space in fact functions in space. The fact that we have already done this means that this will definitely go on to be a product used in this program in the future." Another example of practical application he mentioned was crop cultivation, more specifically the experiments carried out in relation to this aboard the space station. “Some of these were pre-treated to some extent with a technology we are not able to disclose at this time, but thanks to this, the beans germinated, and this may also become a product in the future.”

When asked about the return trip, he said that relief was the best word to describe how he felt when their cabin splashed into the ocean and they floated in the water for an hour. "All the other emotions came out during the flight home. In terms of emotions, coming home is a much more powerful experience for me," he said.

"A day after returning, one can stand confidently, although you still lean slightly to the right when walking. It was after about 10-12 hours that I could say that if I put my arm up here, it will actually stay there," he replied when asked how long it took to acclimatize after returning. “I've been thinking a lot during this time about how amazing the human body's ability to adapt is.”

He revealed that there were also some unexpected situations aboard the International Space Station (ISS), such as when the fire alarm went off, which later turned out to be a false alarm. “The reason for this was that the smoke detectors up there function in such a way that if beams of light or certain types of particles pass through them, the sensor assumes that it is smoke. When a cargo ship was approaching and the others were cleaning the windows so they could take good pictures of it, it triggered the system.”

He added that this happens relatively often at the ISS. “It was great to see the entire station respond with so much confidence and preparedness in such a situation. There were eleven of us up there, and one of the interesting things about the training is that we spend most of our time preparing for the things that happen the least frequently.”

He also mentioned that there was practically no moment when there wasn't a satellite or a fragment of one flying past them, which is indicative of the overcrowding created by space debris and other devices. "It's quite an amazing thing to see, and I really liked it, but it's thought-provoking at the same tim," he said.

He spoke about trying out the Pille dosimeter and even filming a video about it, but said it wasn't easy to arrange for him to enter the Russian module as a non-Russian. However, he did not do any measuring with the instrument, as this is not permitted. "In fact, it took months of work to arrange for me to have official business in the Russian module so that we could shoot this video, and it is mainly thanks to my colleagues that this could happen," he said. “This made me the first astronaut to go to the space station through a private company and have official business in the Russian module.”

"When asked if he would consider going on a mission to the Moon, he answered yes, and added that he believes it is a possibility and there's rationale for a Hungarian astronaut going to the Moon. "For the first time since the 1970s, humanity is preparing to return to the surface of the Moon with a manned spacecraft. It is surprising that we were able to land there at all with the capabilities and technology we had at the time, and that it is still so difficult considering the currently available technology. This is a huge challenge and should not be underestimated. It is not such a bad thing that the bigger countries are spending so much time on it," he said. Tibor Kapu said he was certain that the next person to set foot on the Moon will be either an American or a Chinese astronaut, but there is no question that a European, or even a Hungarian one will follow them a few years later.

Quelle: telex