Rabea Rogge prepares to make record as  first German woman to fly into space

Admin I Thursday, August 15, 2024

 

BERLIN – The first German woman in space is set to fly into space on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket along with four other astronauts, the US-based company said in a post on X.

Rabea Rogge is one of the four “international adventurers” set to fly with crew members from Malta, Norway and Australia, SpaceX said.

The planned commercial mission is set to last several days, the company said on Monday, and could take place at the end of the year at the earliest.

Rogge was introduced as a “specialist for the mission,” said SpaceX, owned by US billionaire Elon Musk.

She studied electrical engineering and information technology at ETH Zurich. For her doctoral thesis, she transferred to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

During the three- to five-day mission on board SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, the team will look at the Earth’s polar regions and examine purple lights, resembling the northern lights, called “Steve,” at an altitude of 425 to 450 kilometres.

SpaceX said the mission, called Fram2, will also produce the first X-ray images of humans in space.

Rogge said she felt incredibly honoured. “I’m really looking forward to being responsible for the research and getting some cool projects off the ground,” she said on X.

No German woman has ever been into space, according to the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

Worldwide, there is no recognized definition of who is considered an astronaut. The Association of Space Explorers (ASE), for example, only accepts members who have completed at least one orbit of the Earth in a spacecraft. The ASE’s list of people who have flown into space comprises around 700 names.