SGAC Czech Republic

National Points of Contact Czech Republic

Welcome to the SGAC Czech Republic country page! This page will provide you a basic overview of space activities, events, organizations and interesting web links in the Czech Republic. While the Czech Republic is in the centre of Europe, we need you, university students and young professionals, to develop space activities and raise the awareness and interest of our country. Despite the fact that the Czech Republic is a small country, the history of our space activities is quite interesting. The Interkosmos 1, launched in 1969, was the first satellite carrying instruments developed in the former Czechoslovakia. In 1978 the first Czech astronaut, Vladimir Remek, became the third nationality in space. The first Czech satellite, Magion 1, reached its orbit in the same year. After the political changes in 1989, the Czech Republic began to establish cooperation with new partners and in 2008 joined the European Space Agency.

Young Space Activities Overview in the Czech Republic

Since Prague hosted the Space Generation Congress and International Astronautical Congress in September 2010, awareness of SGAC in the Czech Republic has increased and first students and young professionals became involved in SGAC activities. A Memorandum of Understanding between Czech Space Office and SGAC in November 2014.

Czech universities offer study programmes focused on aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, astronomy, astrophysics, Earth observation, navigation, telecommunication and other space related areas. Students and young professionals from the Czech Republic are involved in CubeSats and CanSats development and rockets and balloons experiments. Some of the Czech companies offer internships for these young experts. Opportunities for students and young professionals to get involved in space projects or to find space jobs increase with the growth of the Czech space sector.

The Czech Space Network has been established in July 2015 to bring together Czech students and young professionals with the interest in active involvement in astronautics. In the Czech Republic, the main space educational and outreach efforts are carried out by the Czech Space Office. For more information about competitions, events and other interesting opportunities for students and young professionals, please visit website of Czech Space Network, website of Czech Space Office or Spacebook group of SGAC Czech Republic.

Country-Specific Events in 2023

Coming soon!

Interesting Web Links

Organizations and Groups

  • Czech Space Network: The Czech Space Network aims to bring together Czech students and young professionals with interest in active involvement in astronautics. This group facilitates communication, sharing information on opportunities, exchanging experiences and ideas, creating own activities, collaborating on projects and regular meetings. The group also helps to connect its members with representatives of Czech companies, universities and research institutes as well as foreign and international community. The main communication channels are a Google Group, monthly teleconferences and monthly personal meetings. The planned future activities include visits of Czech companies and universities active in space, organising of SpaceUp in Prague, Mars Desert Research Station mission, balloon experiments or CubeSat development.
  • Czech Space Office: A non-profit organization that, since its inception in 2003, has been seeking to develop space activities in the Czech Republic. The main aim is to provide the largest and the most effective involvement of Czech organizations in the Czech and international space projects, to promote and support the use of applications and benefits of space technologies and to provide training and educational events for students and young professionals. The Czech Space Office organizes competitions, seminars, courses and events for students and young professionals and provides information about national and international fellowships, projects and study programmes. It also offers assistance with writing bachelor’s and master’s thesis and introduces career opportunities in the national and international space sector.
  • Czech Space Portal: An informative website of the Coordination Council of the Minister of Transport for Space Activities. It is integrated web portal for space activities of the Czech Republic and brings information dealing with outer space issues of other countries as well.
  • Kosmo Klub: A civil association of space enthusiasts. The purposes are organizing meetings and informing about astronautics, helping all members in their activities, coordinating the cooperation on specific projects and providing entertainment and self-actualization for members.
  • Czech Astronomical Society: A voluntary professional association of researchers in astronomy, amateur astronomers and those interested in astronomy from the general public. It supports development of astronomy in the Czech Republic and creates a link between the professional and amateur astronomers.
  • Committee on Space Research (COSPAR): COSPAR’s objectives are to promote on an international level scientific research in space, with emphasis on the exchange of results, information and opinions, and to provide a forum, open to all scientists, for the discussion of problems that may affect scientific space research. These objectives are achieved through the organization of Scientific Assemblies, publications and other means.
  • Czech Space Alliance: An industrial association of the Czech space industry, with proven skills and track record in aerospace business and with broad international client base. Its focus is on fostering successful participation of the members in competitive international space tenders, with major emphasis on ESA.

Education

  • SpaceMaster: A joint European double degree master programme focused on space science and technology, the main objective is to combine the great diversity of space expertise at six European universities and another two universities in the USA and Japan.
  • Aircraft and Space Systems: Aircraft and Space Systems is oriented to educate and train specialists in the field of aeronautical and space systems and technologies, this education process also provides knowledge from related fields, such as cybernetics, robotics, measurement technologies and data acquisition and processing.
  • Air and Space Technology: Air and Space Technology prepares students for the needs of aircraft production and motor technologies in the aerospace industry, in construction, development and research of aerospace technology.
  • Expedition Mars

Current Projects

  • CzechTechSat: CzechTechSat is 1U CubeSat, it is being developed by students from the Czech Technical University in Prague and should test Fluxgate Magnetometer with Scissor-type Boom and introduce EPS reliable circuits intended for ESA/JUICE mission.
  • PilsenCUBE: PilsenCUBE is 1U CubeSat, it is being developed by students and professors from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and its objective is to propose the solution of reliable and energy-efficient platform for experimental research in space.
  • PragSAT: PragSAT is a CanSat project of the Secondary Technical School of Electrical Engineering in Prague for the 2015 European CanSat Competition. BEXUS – Students from the Czech Technical University in Prague works on a balloon experiment for the BEXUS programme. This experiment should evaluate precision of differential altitude measurement which is intended to solve problems related to low-cost inertial measurement systems in airplanes.

Czech Space Sector

Web Based Forums

  • Kosmonautix: It is a web based forum on astronautics.
  • Kosmo: It is another web based forum on astronautics.