Government unveils plans to send Czech astronaut to space
The Czech government has announced that after nearly half a century, the country is ready to send another astronaut to space. The man preparing for the mission, which is expected to take place in five years’ time, is Czech fighter pilot Aleš Svoboda, a member of the European Space Agency’s astronaut reserve.
The action plan to send a Czech astronaut to space, called “Czech Journey to Space”, was presented at a press conference on Thursday by Prime Minister Petr Fiala and other government and industry representatives. The Czech head of government described the project as a national mission to modernize the economy, education and science.
According to Mr. Fiala, space activities have an enormous economic, scientific, social, strategic, security as well as defence potential and can significantly increase the country’s competitiveness:
“Other EU countries comparative in size, such as Austria, Belgium or Denmark, are investing much more in the development of space technologies than we are and we have to make up for this difference, because the Czech Republic has a real potential in space research and we have to use it.”
Echoing the Czech prime minister’s words, Transport Minister Martin Kupka said the Czech Journey to Space was a chance for “a relatively small country” to make a visible footprint on the world map. He also stressed that a number of Czech companies and Czech scientific teams are already successfully involved in space activities:
“We participate in more than 600 major technological projects and in more than 30 different missions in the form of technological supplies for individual satellites. The Euclid space telescope, which traces the origins of the universe, also bears a Czech footprint, and so do the 3rd generation Meteosat satellites, which allow us to predict the weather much more accurately.”
The Czech who will get the chance to fly to space is fighter pilot Aleš Svoboda from the Czech Army’s Tactical Air Force Base in Čáslav. In 2022 he became a member of the European Space Agency's reserve astronaut team, after being selected from more than 22,000 candidates.
The Czech government received an offer to send him on a space mission last year, but initially considered the project too costly. Now it has agreed to provide the finances for the flight and says it expects it to take place in five years’ time.
If everything goes according to plan, Svoboda will become the second Czech astronaut in space after Vladimir Remek who went up on a Russian Sojuz flight in 1978. This is what he had to say when asked what he expected from the mission:
“For me it is important that this is really a national project, that it is not a mission without a broader context. The number one priority for me is that the mission has the greatest possible benefit for the entire Czech Republic and that it is well prepared. I know that concrete steps have already been taken in this respect.”
Svoboda, who is 38, will begin his training in the second half of this year. More details about the space mission can be found on vzhurudovesmiru.cz.
