Dumitru Prunariu, the only Romanian who has been in space, believes that Romania is losing ground in the space race, behind some Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland, Agerpres reports.

“Both Hungary and Poland signed contracts to launch astronauts into outer space, which means a very high level of technological and political involvement. This is done through private contracts with American companies. Romania is far from joining such activities, because funds are very limited, investments in the field of research have decreased significantly,” he said in Cluj at the “Space Systems Engineering Workshop” event.

Prunariu believes that in terms of space ambitions, Romania is “almost at the last place in Europe”. “There is a minimum level of investment in this industry, if you put yourself below it, you go down, if you are above it, you can start going up. We are under control and we are starting to destroy certain types of activities,” said Dumitru Prunariu.

He also said that a few years ago, Romania was the most developed country in Eastern Europe in terms of space.

Dumitriou Prunariu says that the government does not understand the problems related to space

“The Romanian Space Agency, considered the strongest in the region, was established in 1991. Unfortunately, at the moment, the government does not pay the same attention to space, primarily due to a lack of knowledge of the context in which it is happening. the process is happening. Here, not only science is important, but also political integration through space. Space and security are areas that are considered at the EU level,” he explained.

“Because of these misunderstandings, Romania’s contributions to the European Space Agency (ESA) have not been paid for years, and now a person who has had no contact at this level and who is only involved in administration has been appointed to the management position. Unfortunately, we are waiting for better times,” Dumitru Prunariu emphasized.

The event “Space Systems Development Workshop” is organized at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (UTCN), bringing together more than 100 professionals from the space sector.

Among the guests are Nikolaos Panaiotopoulos, avionics expert and representative of the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as Danai Burnou, representative of the international organization SME4Space.