The Polish Space Agency is paralyzed. Professionals are being laid off.

The Polish Space Agency has lost its ability to cooperate with partners, competent employees are being laid off, organizational and communication issues are paralyzed, and the IGNIS mission was poorly prepared – these are just some of the allegations contained in an anonymous letter sent to the media. The Ministry of Sport and Tourism assures that it is analyzing these reports.

A letter about the situation at POLSA arrived in the inboxes of some space journalists on Thursday evening. Its full content was posted on Facebook by Karol Wójcicki, an astronomy popularizer and author of the blog "Z Głowi w gwiazdach" (Head in the Stars).

The Ministry always thoroughly analyzes all signals, including incoming complaints, regarding supervised entities, assured the Ministry of Development and Technology on Friday in response to questions from PAP.

The authors of the letter recalled that in March this year, Prof. Dr. hab. Grzegorz Wrochna was dismissed from the position of president of POLSA, and in April Dr. Marta Wachowicz was appointed to this position – according to the authors, she is inexperienced in leading large institutions and managing international projects.

Regarding the appointment of the new president, the Ministry of Development and Technology (MRiT) announced that her candidacy was selected in accordance with the provisions of the POLSA Act – from among individuals selected through an open and competitive recruitment process. "The appointment is made after consultation with the Agency's Council, the Minister of National Defense, and the minister responsible for science and higher education. The Agency's Council, the Minister of National Defense, and the minister responsible for higher education and science have presented a positive opinion on Dr. Marta Ewa Wachowicz," the Ministry of Development emphasized.

The numerous allegations against the Ministry of Development and Technology, which oversees POLSA and which made the decision to replace its president, include the dismissal of competent POLSA employees during a key period – preparations for the IGNIS mission with the participation of Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and the upcoming Ministerial Council of the European Space Agency (ESA), which will concern, among other things, the division of Poland's contribution to ESA programs in 2026-2028.

As stated in the letter, POLSA spokeswoman Agnieszka Gapys was fired two weeks before the scheduled launch of Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski's mission, and in recent days, Dr. Aleksandra Bukała, POLSA's IGNIS mission manager, was also fired with immediate effect. Dr. Bukała, director of POLSA's Department of Strategy and International Cooperation, also managed Uznański-Wiśniewski's "IGNIS – Poland Reaches the Stars" tour, which ran until December 19th. As the whistleblowers pointed out, this decision "leaves the mission's debriefing and the publicity of its results unsupervised." In the absence of POLSA's actions, the "post-flight tour," meaning meetings between the Polish astronaut and students, among others, was ultimately initiated by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

The authors of the letter also point out that POLSA's communication and promotion of the Polish astronaut's mission were reduced to a minimum, which wasted the opportunity to use this event to strengthen Poland's position on the European and global space market.

The letter also highlighted POLSA's inability "to cooperate with anyone," including its failure to sign the Polish-Japanese cooperation agreement. The absence of the Polish delegation at the meeting of Artemis Accords signatories during the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Sydney was said to have led to "Poland's de facto withdrawal from the international dialogue on the development of space technologies."

The Artemis Accords are a series of agreements between the United States government and other countries specifying standards for the peaceful, civilian exploration and use of outer space.

According to the authors of the letter, Uznański-Wiśniewski did not go to the congress in Australia due to POLSA's fault, although all the other participants of the AX-4 mission took part in the event.

There is a growing conviction in the scientific, industrial and popularisation communities about the lack of competence of the current POLSA management, lack of decision-making and a disrespectful approach to representatives of the sector – it was written.

They added that POLSA president Dr. Marta Wachowicz delays meetings, cancels them or arrives unprepared, and consults almost every decision with the ministry, which leads to organizational paralysis.

The authors of the letter to journalists also accuse the current president of POLSA of "actively blocking" proposals from representatives of the Polish space sector (associated, among others, with the Association of Space Sector Employers) to organize a series of open meetings with the participation of a Polish astronaut in all provincial cities.

"The scientific, industrial, and educational communities unanimously assess that the current management of the Polish Space Agency demonstrates a lack of competence, makes glaring errors, and disregards the voice of the sector. (...) The current situation is perceived as a serious threat to the development of the Polish space sector and a squandering of the achievements of recent years," the authors of the letter concluded.

PAP also asked the Polish Space Agency to respond to the allegations contained in the letter. As of the time of publication, we had not received a response.

Anna Bugajska (PAP)

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