Polish Space Agency
The Polish Space Agency is the space agency of Poland, administered by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology. It is a member of the European Space Agency. The agency is focused on developing satellite networks and space technologies in Poland. It was established on 26 September 2014, and its headquarters are located in Gdańsk.
History
Background
During the Cold War era, Poland's space activities were heavily influenced by its relationship with the Soviet Union and its membership in the Warsaw Pact. The Polish People's Republic participated in the Interkosmos programme, a Soviet initiative to include Eastern Bloc allies and other countries in space research and exploration. Through the Interkosmos programme, Polish scientists played key roles in developing satellite technology. The Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences was founded in 1976. One key milestone was the travel of General Mirosław Hermaszewski to the Soviet space station Salyut 6 in 1978, being the first Polish national to travel to space.After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Poland took steps towards developing an independent space sector, signing a co-operation agreement with the European Space Agency on the peaceful use of outer space in 1994, which was later expanded on in 2002. Joining the European Union in 2004 and becoming a co-operating state in 2007 led to Poland's increasing participation in ESA programmes, and in July 2012 the ESA Council agreed to Poland joining the European Space Agency. The country officially became the 20th member of the ESA in November of the same year.
The first Polish satellite, PW-Sat, was developed by students at the Warsaw University of Technology and launched in February 2012, with the goal of finding low-cost solutions for de-orbiting satellites. In the following years, the nanosatellites Lem and Heweliusz were put into orbit as part of the BRITE programme by the Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences.
POLSA
On September 26, 2014, an act was passed by the Sejm establishing the Polish Space Agency as a branch of the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology. It started operating with a full team at the end of 2015. In November 2014, professor Marek Banaszkiewicz, who previously served as director of the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, became the first President of the newly-formed agency albeit in an interim capacity. The vice-president for science became professor Marek Moszyński from the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology of the Gdańsk University of Technology, and the Vice-President for Defense - General Lech Majewski. POLSA participates in a number of international programmes, such as the ESA's Space Situational Awareness Programme, focused on monitoring space debris and other objects approaching Earth; and the ENTRUSTED project, focused on providing secure satellite communication for and between government agencies within EU member states.Banaszkiewicz would be replaced by Grzegorz Brona on 28 March, 2018 an industry veteran for 30 years had previously worked for CERN and had been the CEO of Creotech Instruments, Poland's leading satellite manufacturer. Brona would suddenly resign on 3 April, 2019 without giving a reason why and declined to comment on his resignation to Polish media. He would be replaced by Michał Szaniawski in an interim capacity having previously been the vice-president of the Industrial Development Agency and an advisor to the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology. He would be replaced by Grzegorz Wrochna on 18 February, 2021, who had previously been Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and a veteran of CERN and the National Centre for Nuclear Research.
Wrochna would be abruptly dismissed from his post as POLSA President on March 11, 2025, due to his mishandling of the Starlink 11-4 Falcon 9 booster spinning out of control over Poland and disintegrating into several large chunks on February 19. The day after the crash POLSA had issued a statement that they “constantly monitor and analyzes threats in outer space originating from artificial objects, including rockets” and claimed to have adequately warned the government about the uncontrolled re-entry, however, the Ministry of Development and Technology disputed this alleging "irregularities that occurred in the process of reporting by the Polish Space Agency" with Krzysztof Paszyk urgently summoning Wrocha for an explanation. Paszyk also claimed that POLSA's earlier statement that they adequately warned the government "did not reflect the assessment of the situation resulting from the reports sent by the Agency and could have misled the public." On February 28 POLSA issued a formal apology, stating that they sent the report to the wrong email at the Ministry of National Defence. Shortly after on March 2 POLSA's main servers where hacked in a cyberattack only being restored on March 5, just 6 days before Wrocha was dismissed.
It would take until April 29th for a new President to be named, Dr. Marta Ewa Wachowic, a PhD in space physics who had been instrumental in getting POLSA formed as an independent agency in 2014. Between 2015 and 2018, she led the Department of Strategy and International Cooperation at POLSA seeking to support Poland’s space sector in international economic cooperation. Upon her appointment, her boss Krzysztof Paszyk stated "True, Copernicus wasn’t a woman… but the new President of POLSA, the Polish Space Agency, is. And I’m incredibly proud of that."
Crewed space program
Axiom 4 and ''Ignis''
On August 9, 2023 POLSA signed a deal with Axiom Space to send a Polish astronaut to the International Space Station aboard Axiom Mission 4, with the candidate being Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, then the only Polish member of the European Space Agency's Astronaut Corps. He would become the first Polish national in space since Mirosław Hermaszewski flight with Soyuz 30. Shortly after POLSA contributed €200 million to the ESA, an increase from their expected contribution of €132 million as POLSA announced they seek to control a 3% stake in the European space market by 2030.On February 5, 2025, it was officially announced that Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski became a member of the Axiom 4 crew as part of the standalone mission Ignis, a joint venture between POLSA and the ESA. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced at the mission's unveiling that "Space is no longer just a realm of imagination. It is becoming a domain where Polish ambitions will also be present." Ingis included 13 Polish scientific experiments covering topics such as the effects of microgravity on the human immune system, the development of cosmic radiation sensors, and the stability of nanomaterials in space conditions.
Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski launched to space on 25 June 2025 aboard Crew Dragon Grace on their third launch attempt on June 25, 2025 at 06:31:53UTC. After 18 days at the ISS, Grace undocked on July 14, 2025, 11:15UTC, commencing a 22-hour return back to Earth. The spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on July 15, 2025 at 09:31:36UTC.
Artemis 6
On 30 September 2023, Wrochna announced that POLSA aims to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030, presumably on Artemis 6. He also announced that Poland will be developing native launch capabilities, as well as native satellites to help the Polish economy. From 19 to 21 June, 2023, POLSA hosted a conference of Artemis Accord signatories in Gdańsk where Poland was one of the two co-chairs of the "Emerging Space Actors Working Group" alongside Brazilian Space Agency.Domestic satellites
On March 6, 2018 the POLSA announced that they were planning on investing 1.43 billion zł over an eight-year period as part of the "National Space Program" project which would allow POLSA to coordinate with preexisting private space entities in Poland. The founding would have also funded an astronomical observation satellite, a SAR microsatellite, and a number of other R&D projects. Piotr Suszyński, the vice president for defense at POLSA, also stated that the project would promote international cooperation with the European Space Agency. However, POLSA's funding request would not pass.On March 18, 2022, POLSA signed a letter of intent with Virgin Orbit in a bid to secure a domestic launch capability. POLSA planned on launching a series of microsatellites, however, the Russian invasion of Ukraine shuttered any plans to use Russian rockets to launch the probes. Wrochna also explained that Poland has no physical location for a traditional vertical launch pad, as any typical space launch will cause debris to fall on populated areas. Virgin's Orbit, and by extension LauncherOne, were defunct before a Polish flight could take place.