Establishment of Spacelab Network Marks New Era in Hungarian Space Research

An agreement has been reached between nine universities, two ministries, and the HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network to establish a space industry network called the Hungarian Spacelab Network. The signing ceremony was held on Monday in Budapest.

In his welcome speech, Balázs Hankó, Minister of Culture and Innovation, emphasized that a country’s excellence in research, education, and science is indicated by its presence in the space industry, space research, and space sciences. He stressed that significant progress has been made in recent years.

He recalled that when the HUNOR (Hungarian to Orbit) program was launched, “many were skeptical, but we achieved our goal.” This required significant assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, our universities, and the HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network, he pointed out.

The politician said that

our universities have begun significant cooperation in the UniSpace program, including not only space medicine and space science, but also food science and engineering.

The Minister described the Spacelab network as an excellent research collaboration that will carry on and build on the results achieved by the experiments conducted by Hungarian astronaut Tibor Kapu.

Orsolya Ferencz, Ministerial Commissioner for Space Research, emphasized that the HUNOR program was a true team effort, its results were recognized worldwide, and it became a historic mission to unite the nation. She added that “in an explosively developing industry, we are writing the history of the 21st century in outer space.”

The ministerial commissioner noted that

we need to have experts and researchers who can be kept at home with research tasks, as well as being able to call Hungarian and even foreign experts back from other countries.

She described the opportunities opened up by HUNOR as enormous, including the fact that the scientific laboratory network can now begin to take shape.

Levente Kovács, rector of Obuda University, said that the Hungarian Spacelab Network brings together universities that have shown significant energy and research affinity in the HUNOR program to showcase their capabilities to the world.

The collaboration involves:

• University of Miskolc
• Eötvös Loránd University
• University of Pécs,
• Obuda University,
• Széchenyi University
• Semmelweis University,
• University of Szeged
• Budapest University of Technology and Economics
• University of Debrecen.

Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Balogh Zoltán