SGAC Hungary

National Points of Contact Hungary

Welcome to the country page of the SGAC Hungary! The objective of the SGAC Hungary team is to reach out and connect students and young professionals in order to open gates to space for the next space generation of Hungary.

Hungary had many great achievements in the decades of the space era allowing the country to take advantage of its space heritage in the new space race. There are several fields from dosimetry over telecommunication technologies to small satellites in which Hungary has been traditionally professional. Hungary was the 7th country in the world to send an astronaut to space and although it is one of the newest members of the European Space Agency (ESA) joining in 2015, it was a relevant contributor many times from the very beginning even in big projects like the Rosetta mission.

Further, the currently smallest working satellite SMOG-P was created entirely by professors and students of Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The university is in progress to accrediting a space engineering master’s programme, thus this knowledge becomes available in the near future and you can study these things in Hungary. A rocketry programme is also in formation with the help of the Cosmos Society.

Hungarian space research and space activities are handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFA) which delegated a ministerial commissioner for space activities (both research and industry) – Orsolya Ferencz, Ph.D. – and the establishment of the National Space Exploration Fund is also in progress especially for governmental funding of space activities. The National Space Strategy for 2021-2030 is being developed to the order of MFA.

Space related knowledge sharing has been the duty of the Hungarian Astronautical Society since the 1960 and connecting the Hungarian space community is still one of their main goals. Most of the young generation interested in space activities meet the Hungarian Astronautical Society during their early career, just like the Cosmos Society, CanSat Hungary, and Astro Quiz Night and Astronomy on Tap later, as young professionals. The NPoCs work in close cooperation with these organizations. In the last years of this cooperation resulted in many joint networking programs.

Industry is another important player in exploiting synergies. The main connection points between the students, professionals and the space industry are the Hungarian Space Cluster (HunSpace) and the Hungarian Aerospace Technology (HATP) as well as the ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC).

If you are a university student or a young professional passionate about space and interested in learning more about SGAC and its Hungarian community, join us!

Young Space Activities Overview in Hungary

Hungary has a very active young space community, part of which gathered in Budapest during the European Student Forum and gathers every year at the H-Space conference. Also we were very proud to have organised the 1st European Space Generation Workshop in Budapest in 2016. Apart from SGAC, there are several other groups that may be of interest for young space enthusiasts:

  • ESERO: The Hungarian ESERO Office is just being formed. Stay tuned for further news!
  • CanSat Hungary: The first Hungarian CanSat Competition was organised by the aforementioned Cosmos Society in order to build engagement with space already at a young age and it’s planned to be continued every year with more and more interesting challenges – even for university students interested in rocketry.
  • Cosmos Society: The team mainly consists of university citizens who are engaged in space research in one way or another and want to answer questions about humanity. They currently have 188 members and new members are always welcome! It is an open-minded and innovative community looking for interesting space projects, while still focusing on professional knowledge transfer for the next generation as well. Their relation is strong with universities, research centres and space companies.
  • MANT Space Academy and Space Academy Club: These are joint events of MANT and SGAC where all the players of space activities can show their work and meet and greet with other space enthusiasts. Club events are bimonthly with professional talks and after sessions with casual conversations alongside some refreshments, while there is the summer Space Academy which is 3-4 days long workshop about a space-related project (different every year) with a lot of professional talks about the topic.
  • Astronomy on Tap Budapest: the worldwide network of the monthly or bimonthly events of astronomy and space exploration enthusiasts was widened in 2018 with a Hungarian satellite event. News from space, talks about fresh studies, quizzes and of course beers in a young and great community.
  • Business Incubation Centre and Technology Transfer Office: The BIC and TTO of ESA welcomes you in Budapest if you have projects and ideas using space technology.

Country-Specific Events in 2023

Coming soon!

Interesting Web Links

Groups, people
Studies & Technology

Institutions

News of the Hungarian space research

News in space sector (in Hungarian)

News in astronomy (in Hungarian)

2nd SSEA, Budapest 2018