Czech space will be presented at 59th IAC in Glasgow
Czech Space Office takes part at the 59th International Astronautical Congress that takes place in Scottish Glasgow. It is primarily going to use this opportunity to present the capabilities of Czech industry and science in the field of cosmonautics. The congress starts on September 29th and lasts till October 3rd 2008.
“We are going to use our presence at the congress to present the current Czech cosmonautics, especially in the light of upcoming full membership of the Czech Republic in ESA (European Space Agency). We are therefore going to focus on the presentation of the possibilities of Czech involvement in space programmes”, states Ing. Jiří M. Fuchs from Czech Space Office (CSO) towards the Czech expedition to Glasgow and he adds: “The goal of Czech Space Office is to promote Czech industry and the congress gives us a unique opportunity to establish new contacts.”
Czech Space Office is going to present the possibilities of the Czech industry at a booth right next to the lecture hall. Three members of CSO are going to lead discussions with the visitors – they are going to be doc. Jan Kolář (director of CSO), Ing. Jiří M. Fuchs (Head of Industrial Technology Unit at CSO) and Mgr. Josef Šobra (Head of Earth Observation at CSO) – and also three other external experts with a long experience in the International Astronautical Federation - prof. Vladimír Kopal, doc. Luboš Perek and Dr. Petr Lála. It is the personal consultations and discussions with the experts what is emphasised on this congress by CSO.
“A successful presentation at the congress will help Czech industry and research foremost by showing its capacity and also by raising the publicity of the Czech Republic. Czech companies are progressively starting to be interesting partners in individual space programmes”, says Fuchs towards the expected outcome of the presentation and adds: “Although we are a non-member country of ESA, our companies and institutions hold up in the international comparison very well.”
The Czech participation in Glasgow was being prepared by the coordination team for more than a half a year. But the preparations for the next year will start already on this year’s October. A year after, in the year 2010, the International Astronautical Congress is going to be hosted by Prague and the preparations for its arrival are already under way. This year’s congress in Glasgow is therefore informative and useful from the point of view of the upcoming Prague’s hosting, for it is the first time since 1977 the city of Prague hosts International Space Congress.