In ESA Mogensen was selected to become the first Danish astronaut by the
European Space Agency in May 2009. He completed initial training and became a member of the
European Astronaut Corps in November 2010. In 2012, Mogensen served as cavenaut in the
ESA CAVES training in
Sardinia, alongside
David Saint-Jaques,
Soichi Noguchi,
Nikolai Tikhonov,
Andrew Feustel, and
Michael Fincke. During this training course, he took part in the discovery of
Alpioniscus sideralis, a new species of
stygofaunal crustaceans. On 10 June 2014, NASA announced that Mogensen would serve as an
aquanaut aboard the
Aquarius underwater laboratory during the
NEEMO 19 undersea exploration mission, which began on 7 September 2014 and lasted seven days. Between September and November 2021, Mogensen participated in the fourth edition of
ESA PANGAEA training program. Together with the NASA astronaut
Kathleen Rubins, Mogensen went to the
Italian Dolomites, to the
Ries Crater in Germany and the volcanic landscapes of
Lanzarote, Spain. ESA's Pangaea program prepares astronauts and space engineers to identify planetary geological features for future missions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids.
Iriss Mogensen's mission to the ISS was called "Iriss". The mission name was chosen from suggestions received from across Europe. "Iriss" had two logos, one to highlight the overall mission and one for the educational outreach activities. On 2 September 2015, Mogensen launched with
Soyuz TMA-18M to ISS and landed with
Soyuz TMA-16M ten days later. He was traveling with another visiting flight engineer,
Aidyn Aimbetov. Among the items Andreas brought along were
LEGO figures and a poster for
Copenhagen Suborbitals. Because of the short mission duration, Mogensen worked up to 9.5-hour days instead of the 8-hour workdays that are normal on the station. His missions included remote control of a robot on Earth, and filming
Red Sprites and Blue Jets lightnings above thunderclouds, directed from Earth. He also tried a new kind of
Skinsuit to alleviate back-pain astronauts feel due to the lengthening of their spine and used augmented reality goggles during his maintenance tasks. The crew landed at 00:51 UTC on 12 September 2015, just over three hours after departing the ISS. Mogensen received the
Danish Royal Medal of Recompense for his efforts.
Huginn In March 2022, he was selected as pilot of
SpaceX Crew-7. On its launch in August 2023, he became the first European pilot of a spacecraft and the first pilot of a US spacecraft who is not a US citizen. He also served as the ISS
Expedition 70 commander. The European segment of the mission is called "Huginn". Crew-7 and Mogensen returned to Earth on 12 March 2024. == Personal life ==