SGAC Romania

National Points of Contact Romania

Welcome to the country page of the SGAC Romania!

The main objective of the SGAC Romania is to reach, inform, inspire and connect students and young professionals in order to inspire Romania’s next space generation.

Romania is an important actor in the international space sector, being a member of the European Space Agency (ESA) and European Union (EU). The Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) is the coordinator of Romania’s national and international space activities. Established in 1991, ROSA becomes an independent public institution under the authority of the Ministry of Education, Research and Innovation.
The country is still under development and the transition between robust and ingenious inventions of brilliant engineers like Traian Vuia, Aurel Vlaicu, Elie Carafoli or Henri Coanda to the modern, electronic-based science is a challenge. A symbol of Romanian space activities is represented by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dumitru Prunariu, the Romanian cosmonaut that put our country on the map of space explorers. Professor Prunariu is member of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) and permanent representative of ASE in United Nations Committee on Peaceful Use of Outer Space (UN-COPUOUS). Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru Dorin Prunariu, Honorary President of the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA), is featured in the first episode in the latest series of ESA podcast, ESA Explores Time and Space.

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

Young Space Activities Overview in Romania

Romania benefits from the existence of the European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO) Romania, which created a more than welcome connection between all the opportunities offered by ESA and the Romanian young generation. Romania hosted the 3rd European Space Generation Workshop in March 2018. Romania has an increased number of participants in ESA programmes, including graduates working in ESA Young Graduate Trainee (YGT) programme, and numerous internal space activities and outreach. Romania has a highly active space community, enthusiasts involved in numerous scientific projects and outreach.
There are also plenty of opportunities for students to grow their knowledge by participating at Romanian space actors’ activities. In addition, since Romania is a member state of the European Space Agency, any Romanian student is entitled to participate to any program organized at ESA, as well as to attend any program from any EU member state country.

EUROAVIA is the European Association of Aerospace Students, representing the interests of over 2000 students from 38 universities in 19 European countries. Established in 1959, EUROAVIA wants to be a bridge between companies, universities and students, being the main goal to promote European cooperation in the aerospace field by providing opportunities for its members to meet, exchange and learn on all levels. They also organise several events and workshops around Europe to promote this collaboration. The Romanian branch (Euroavia Bucharest) makes no exception and organizes numerous events.

The University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, together with the European Space Agency have also launched the ESA_Lab@UPB in Romania in October 2020.

The concept of ESA_Lab@ was launched by ESA in order to inspire future researchers and engineers to take part in peaceful space exploration activities and the resulting cross-cutting applications, such as: telecommunications, 5G, climate change monitoring , Earth observation, satellite navigation, (cyber)security, artificial intelligence, sustainable development, eHealth, Internet of Things, space economy etc., to the benefit of both organizations and of society. Themes such as space applications to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations will be addressed through dedicated studies.

Within the ESA_Lab@UPB there will be conferences, visits, trainings and thematic studies on innovative subjects, led by UPB teachers and ESA experts, in order to encourage future UPB engineers to leverage on this new economic hub, and also to form new competences by knowledge transfer from the studied courses.

Country-Specific Events in 2023 and previous years

Romania Science Festival

AstroFest Romania

Bucharest Science Festival, 23-27 September, 2020

Bucharest International Space Apps Challenge 2020, 3-4 October, 2020

Researcher’s Night Bucharest, 27 November, 2020

Romanian Conference for Education and Research, 27-29 October, 2020

Interesting Web Links

Governmental, business and scientific institutions:

Groups, communities, societies, NGOs:

  • Romania Space Initiative (RoSpIn): Student-led NGO that aims to promote and encourage the space field in Romania, with the vision of creating a community united by its aspirations for space. The NGOs aims to build the first Romanian educational CubeSat, meant to watch over Romania’s forests.
  • Inventeaza.ro – a youth technical creation center that supports innovative initiatives in the technical field. It also offers courses for teenagers in the STEM field, offers scholarships and organizes science workshops and events.
  • Vanguard Technology – team of passionate engineers and volunteers, working on some of the most complex (and fun at the same time) projects (build rockets capable of launching small payloads (students’, or other organizations’ projects) high in the sky for research purposes)
  • Universul de Langa Noi – Universe next to us – is an amateur astronomy club in Alba Iulia and its surroundings, which aims to show the public the beauty of the sky.
  • Fereastra catre Stiinta Festival (Window towards Science), Tecuci – project born from the desire to popularize science among young people and not only. The project aims to bring together specialists in all scientific fields and in all cities to bring science closer to people.
  • CERC Experimentis Iasi – education activities S.T.E.A.M. based on interaction, collaboration and play, designed to make it easier for children to understand phenomena, use technology and creative approaches to problems.
  • Aeronautical Medical Society – Societatea de Medicina Aeronautica – professional, scientific organization of doctors and specialists operating in aeronautical medicine and other disciplines that cope with the efficiency of the human factor in aeronautics.
  • Societatea Astronomica Romana de Meteori – Romanian Astronomic Society of Meteors – Youth NGO promoting the national development of astronomy and collaboration between amateurs and professionals;
  • Codette – a community of girls and women, passionate about STEM who aim to find the needs of the community they come from and to realize a series of events based on education and personal development to encourage girls to study engineering.
  • Erdélyi Magyar Csillagászati Egyesület – Asociatia Astronomica Maghiara din Transilvania – Hungarian Astronomic Association in Transilvania, Romania.

Main companies:

Most of the space companies in Romania, are listed in alphabetical order on the ROSA dedicated webpage. They also offer job and learning opportunities for young people. Moreover, the complete scientific community in Romania that participates in space projects is presented in detail on ROSA scientific page.

Personal Development, space-related news websites and learning and teaching opportunities:

National space, science and technology-related influencers:

Space-related Romanian achievements in 2020:

Climate Detectives school project: ESA is challenging teams of students to work like detectives and identify and investigate a local climate problem. In order to do this, they collected and analysed Earth Observation data, either from satellites or from local weather measurements. Based on their investigations, teams proposed ways to help reduce the climate problem identified by them, or raise awareness about it. Two teams from Romania, from well-known schools (Bucharest and Galati) were between the best 5 teams, out of 450 students in 2019-2020.

Rocket/Baloon Experiment for University Students (REXUS/BEXUS) Programme: Ecrida is a the second Romanian project participating in the REXUS program that proposes the study of the 3D printing phenomenon using UV resin polymerization in a low gravity environment. Our Experiment will be launched inside the RX29 rocket in 2021 from the Polar Circle.

Thales Tech Challenge: 3psilon project from Romania declared the winner of the competition for proposing Solar Mirror Satellites that redirect light (relying on an efficiency maximization algorithm) to solar charging stations for electric cars and isolated places. Drivers can use them via a phone/web app.

Romania will play an essential role in the HERA mission, the ESA’s first mission for planetary defence, part of an international asteroid deflection effort, carried out in collaboration with NASA. In this mission, the Romanian side is an example of national and international cooperation and private and public sector cooperation. Four companies and one research institution from Romania will contribute to the mission. GMV Innovating Solutions — Romania will develop the navigation related component that is based on image processing from the Guidance, Navigation and control System (GNC) and the Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery (FDIR). Additionally, GMV is responsible for the developing and production of the unit processing image. ATOS Romania through ATOS Convergence Creators will be involved in the ground testing system for the satellite and primary data processing. Sonovision Romania will be responsible for the harness system. EFACEC Romania will carry out the Planetary Altimeter (PALT) manufacturing and testing, for both the hardware & software. The National Institute for Research and Development for Optoelectronics – INOE 2000 will contribute to the PALT design, the testing functionality of PALT optics and the development of the optical ground support equipment.