Overview of Hungarian space activity: Plenty of potential,not enough support

The era of modern space research and applications began with the 1945–46 Moon-radar experiments and with the successful launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1. Hungary and Hungarian engineers/researchers were present at the birth of this new and important discipline. As a consequence of the Second World War Hungary became part of the Soviet bloc and, for the first 30 years of the Space Age, Hungarian space activity was carried out mainly within Intercosmos; however, some highlights were produced. After the collapse of the communist dictatorship Hungarian space activity was successfully rebuilt and the past 20 years have seen the beginning of the integration of Hungarian space activity into ESA and EU space policy. Hungarian society’s attitude to the country’s space activity is complex, as is that of its decision makers. This largely results from the simplified picture of global space activity and Hungarian participation therein in people’s minds and from the ignorance of the country’s decision makers. While this is basically a global problem, it has a special Hungarian aspect in the view that a small country has no real role in the world, in the EU, in ESA or in global space activity. We have a task: to change this mind-set.