Expert: Polish telescope to fly to the Moon's orbit next year

The telescope designed and manufactured in Poland will fly into the Moon's orbit next year, Oskar Zdunek from Scanway, the company working on this instrument, told PAP.

Oskar Zdunek, Business Development Manager at Scanway, was a guest at the European Space Days (EU Space Days 2025) held in Gdańsk on 27-28 May – an event organised by the European Commission under the patronage of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council.

Zdunek assessed in an interview with PAP that the Polish space sector is undergoing a clear transformation – from a supplier of individual components to a designer and contractor of complete satellite systems. As an example, he gave the largest Polish space company, Creotech, which creates satellite platforms, i.e. complete structures to which various components can be attached – such as optical instruments or on-board computers.

According to the expert, the defense sector is showing increasing interest in the space industry. "The European Space Agency is also moving from civilian projects more towards defense projects," he noted.

As he said, Scanway specializes in creating optical instruments placed on satellites, rockets and other spacecraft. The Polish company's products are used, among others, to observe the Earth, the Moon and the space around ships. "We are currently implementing a project with the company Intuitive Machines - it is the first private company to land on the Moon. Next year we will fly with them to the Moon's orbit with our telescope," he informed.

According to Oskar Zdunek, Poland's growing importance in the space industry is influenced, among other things, by the increase in the contribution our country pays to the European Space Agency (ESA).

In 2023, the Ministry of Development and Technology decided to increase Poland's contribution to ESA for the years 2023-2025 by 295 million euros. Currently, Poland is in seventh place in terms of the size of the financial contribution among the 22 member states of the agency.

Zdunek emphasized that the Polish space sector is becoming increasingly recognizable in the world. In his opinion, this is thanks to the European Space Agency and commercial orders that flow to Poland from various regions of the world - including Korea, the United States, India and Kazakhstan.

"We also have a lot of space industry companies that deal with the so-called downstream. This is the use of data from satellite Earth observations for the purposes of, for example, crisis management, such as during floods," the interlocutor told PAP.

Oskar Zdunek stated that more and more young people are interested in the space industry: "The Polish space sector needs more and more employees, so students are essential for this industry to exist and grow," he concluded. (PAP)

abu/ arw/ zan/ pl/

The PAP Foundation permits free reprinting of articles from the Nauka w Polsce Service, provided that you inform us by e-mail once a month about the use of the service and provide the source of the article. In portals and internet services, please include the linked address: Source: naukawpolsce.pl, and in journals the annotation: Source: Nauka w Polsce Service - naukawpolsce.pl. The above permission does not apply to: information from the "World" category and any photographs and video materials.