The UK’s next ISS astronaut is already aiming for an epic trip to Mars, while Elon Musk plans a colony on the Red Planet by 2050

The next British astronaut to board the International Space Station is eager to go to the Moon, Mars and beyond – if he is assigned the mission.

Rosemary Coogan, 33, is expected to be sent to the orbital post sometime after 2026, once she completes two more years of missionary training.

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Coogan graduated from the European Space Agency (ESA) in April this year, when she was hailed “among the best” in her astronaut class.

Asked if she would one day join Elon Musk and other partners on the Moon, Mars and beyond, Coogan told The Sun: “Yes, absolutely.

“We are already back on the Moon. The Artemis missions have already started and the European service module is actually powering the Orion spacecraft that is taking astronauts back to the Moon.

“We had a very successful Artemis 1 [mission] that has been unscrewed and Artemis 2 is expected to fly in the next year or so.

“I know my focus now is going to the International Space Station, but beyond that, Europe will go back to the Moon and, of course, one day to Mars with everything we learned from the Moon as well.”

NASA’s Artemis 2, the first manned mission to the Moon in more than 50 years, is scheduled to launch in September 2025.

Plans to build permanent housing on the Moon will be a critical stepping stone to getting humans to Mars.

Astroentrepreneur and SpaceX founder Musk hopes to establish a sustainable human colony on the Red Planet by 2050 – with flights beginning as early as 2029 aboard his next-generation Starship rocket.

Coogan’s ambition is the embodiment of the UK government’s efforts to gain a foothold in the global space industry.

Last year, the UK Space Agency signed a deal with Axiom Space to plan an all-British off-planet mission, led by astronaut Tim Peake.

Although the UK’s new Secretary of State for Science and Technology, Peter Kyle, has remained silent on the mission’s progress.

Kyle, who was appointed to the role at the start of the month, told The Sun: “Due to the nature of the launch and the circumstances surrounding it, it means it is very difficult to plan [a timeline].

“All I can say is I’m just as excited about this as the rest of the country.”

Due to the economic difficulties our country finds itself in, we cannot simply do business as usual, we will have to innovate our way out of the challenges our country faces

Peter Kyle, UK Secretary of State for Science and Technology

Kyle, the MP for Hove and Portslade, said the potential success of an all-British mission “fires every patriotic gene in my body because it will be a huge moment of national pride and it will be a moment where I think I can excite the nation again with the science”.

And Coogan, who dreamed of space as a child before becoming an astrophysicist-turned-astronaut, “represents” that “incredible future.”

He compares the moment to the US’s Apollo 7, NASA’s first manned flight in the Apollo program.

“No one thought that Apollo 7 was going to start spawning all these different industries, all these different technologies that many of us take for granted now, that were never intended to be part of the mission but grew out of it,” Kyle said.

The Apollo program is considered to have given rise to smartphones and the personal computer, thanks to NASA’s efforts to miniaturize technology.

It’s this do-or-die attitude that Kyle believes can lead the UK economy to brighter pastures.

“Due to the economic difficulties our country finds itself in, we cannot simply do business as usual, we will have to innovate to overcome the challenges our country faces”, he concluded.

“We have this new opportunity now and Britain will be in charge of it.”