SGAC Bulgaria
National Points of Contact Bulgaria
Bulgaria became the sixth country to launch a person in space when in 1979 Georgi Ivanov flew onboard Soyuz 33. Bulgaria signed a European Cooperating State agreement with the European Space Agency on 8 April 2015 and five projects were approved for implementation in 2016. A Second Invitation to Tender was announced on 11 October 2016 with expected signing of contracts in 2017. Bulgaria is a signatory to all five United Nations International Space Law treaties and the allocation of radio frequencies and Geostationary Earth orbit slots is regulated under the Telecommunications Law. Currently Bulgaria is represented in SGAC by Kamen Kozarev and Stanimir Gantchev who are actively involved in the Space Challenges Program, which shares a lot of the goals of SGAC.
Young Space Activities Overview in Bulgaria
Former NPoC Raycho Raychev together with Stanimir Gantchev and Kamen Kozarev (NPoCs of Bulgaria) and the Space Challenges Team carried out the 7th Edition of the Space Challenges Academy (October 18th – November 25th 2016). The Space Challenges program is the biggest free educational program for space science, technology and exploration. The main goal of the program is to develop a generation of young scientists and technology professionals with an entrepreneurial mindset by focusing on direct economic and social impact. The program is structured around three main components: science, technology and entrepreneurship and is predominantly practice-oriented. The Space Challenges program has been very successful, with more than 40 core participants every year, as well as over 30 000 online lecture attendees per year. In the summer of 2016 an extensive free online educational platform was launched by the team of Space Challenges – Spaceport. It consists of over 100 hours of space lectures, presented by leading experts from around the world. The idea of the platform is “play to study”, which is achieved through graphical user interface that is stimulating the users (online space cadets) to win medals, challenges between participants and direct sharing of achievements in social media. This free educational platform utilizes online quizzes that are based on the lectures watched by the specific user and provide marking system for the user by predefined threshold levels.
Country-Specific Events in 2023
Coming soon!
Interesting Web Links
- International Space Apps Challenge
- International Space University
- Institute for Space Research and Technologies
- Singularity University Global Competition – CEE
- Sofia University Aerospace Engineering
- Space4BG – Webpage of Space for Bulgaria project, which aims to increase the awareness about space technologies and applications of the European Space Agency as well as to bring basic space science and technology knowledge to hundreds of young Bulgarians.
- Space Apps Challenge 2017 Bulgaria – The official website of NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2017 Bulgaria.
- Space Challenges – The official website of Space Challenges Program.
- Space Challenges Academy – The official website of Space Challenges Academy.
- Space Challenges Junior – The official website of Space Challenges Junior Program.
- Spaceport – The biggest free online platform for space education.
- Stratospheric Cinema Project