According to the Ministry of Development and Technology (MRiT), an increase of EUR 295 million in the Polish contribution to the European Space Agency (ESA) between 2023 and 2025 will bring concrete benefits to Poland. It means not only the participation of a Polish astronaut in a mission to the International Space Station, but also programmes and activities allowing our economy to jump to a higher level of development.
“We have aspirations, but also predispositions to be among the countries that have strongly developed space technologies in a few years. Our goal is not to catch up with others, but to be at the global forefront. Strengthened cooperation between Poland and the ESA will pay us back many times over. The second Pole in history will fly into space, the level of indigenous space technologies will increase, high-paying jobs will be created, and there will be dynamic development of our economy”, says the head of the Ministry of Transport, Waldemar Buda.
Poland has been a member of the ESA since 2012. This has accelerated the development of the Polish space sector. It has made Poland an important and recognisable partner in European space programmes in the field of research and space and satellite technologies.
The Polish space sector currently consists of more than 400 entities. Already, more than 200 of them cooperate with the ESA on a daily basis. Employment in the sector is approximately 15 000 people and contracts acquired by Polish companies sum up the total of 140,000 euro.
Domestic space companies specialise in control and robotics, application of Earth observation data, mechatronics, optics and communication systems for satellites, scientific sensors and space and terrestrial software.
The technological solutions that have been developed for space missions are used every day. These include, for example, scratch-resistant eyeglass lenses and shape memory foam in mattresses. Others include satellite navigation, smartphone cameras, water filters and vacuum packs for food.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński