Poland fires head of its space agency
Apparently due to his failures in min-February dealing with debris dropped on Poland from a de-orbiting Falcon 9 upper station, the government has fired the head of its space agency.
The President of the Polish Space Agency, Grzegorz Wrochna, has been dismissed following a botched response to the uncontrolled re-entry of a Falcon 9 second stage that scattered debris across multiple locations in Poland.
It appears Wrochna’s office had sent its reports on the debris to the wrong email address, so that the people higher up in the command chain were not informed properly about what was happening. This failure was then compounded in early March when the space agency’s computer systems were hacked, forcing it to shut down its access to the internet.
You might ask why Poland even has a space agency, and if you do you are asking the right question. The nation does not have “a space program,” which would require an agency. Instead it has a handful of new rocket startups, mostly focused on suborbital flights. All these need is the right legal framework to succeed, not a bureaucracy telling them what to do.
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Apparently due to his failures in min-February dealing with debris dropped on Poland from a de-orbiting Falcon 9 upper station, the government has fired the head of its space agency.
The President of the Polish Space Agency, Grzegorz Wrochna, has been dismissed following a botched response to the uncontrolled re-entry of a Falcon 9 second stage that scattered debris across multiple locations in Poland.
It appears Wrochna’s office had sent its reports on the debris to the wrong email address, so that the people higher up in the command chain were not informed properly about what was happening. This failure was then compounded in early March when the space agency’s computer systems were hacked, forcing it to shut down its access to the internet.
You might ask why Poland even has a space agency, and if you do you are asking the right question. The nation does not have “a space program,” which would require an agency. Instead it has a handful of new rocket startups, mostly focused on suborbital flights. All these need is the right legal framework to succeed, not a bureaucracy telling them what to do.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Polish interest in space is definitely on the rise. The new startups aside, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, an ESA project astronaut Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MRiT), and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA), is slated to fly to the International Space Station as part of Axiom Mission 4, also known as Ax-4, a commercial human spaceflight mission. This marks only the second time a Polish national will fly in space, and the first time a Polish national will visit the ISS, with the mission set for launch in spring 2025.
He’s considered an ESA astronaut for this mission, but his seat is really being paid for by the Polish government — specifically, the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MRiT), and the barely sorta existing Polish Space Agency (POLSA).
But yes, it’s the rise of American commercial space capabilities (Axiom and SpaceX) that are enabling Sławosz to make this mission. If the Poles had waited for a normal ESA ISS rotation….well, I am not sure ISS will last that long.
And here I thought Dietrich was the space cadet, not Wojo.
Most members of ESA have a space agency. Poland’s ranks 10th of 23 nation states in contributions, slightly below the Netherlands. The Polish government is also paying for an astronaut to take part in an Axiom mission.