Czech Space Office
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Czech Space Office (Czech: Česká kosmická kancelář) is not the national space agency of the Czech Republic. It is a non-profit company contracted on an annual basis by the Czech Ministry of Education to administer its space interests. It has no executive powers. It was created in November 2003 by several managers/owners of companies with space business interests and the academy of sciences with its own interests. As such, its views cannot be regarded as representative of the whole Czech space community.
[edit] About Czech Space Office
Czech Space Office is a non-profit association. It was created in November 2003. The bodies of the association are the Management Board, the Supervisory Board and the Managing Director.
The main acitvities of the Czech Space Office are:
- information and advisory centre on the space activities including international cooperation,
- contact point for communication with ESA,
- national contact point for Galileo,
- Czech Republic representation in the International Astronautical Federation (IAF),
- providing input information for the Czech professional institutions and experts as well as for foreign organisations interested in space activities in the Czech Republic,
- supporting development of the space science,
- facilitation of the space industry development and implementation of space applications,
- education and student activities.
To reach those objectives, the CSO organises seminars and workshops for professionals from various fields of space activities, as well as educational and public events devoted to space related topics.
The Office closely cooperates with the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, which is a governmental body responsible for space activities in the Czech Republic. CSO provides administrative, technical and professional support to the Ministry required for different space related tasks and decisions. It also prepares meeting of the Czech Board for Space Activities (CBSA) and corresponding documents. CSO coordinates and administrates projects in ESA programmes and evaluates results of the cooperation for the Ministry. CSO also represents the Czech Republic in a High-level Space Policy Group chaired by EC and ESA. Finally, CSO is as well a member of the European organization EURISY promoting education and information about space technology and its applications, and a national point of contact for the World Space Week - a worldwide UN space outreach activity.
The CSO's work includes gathering and archiving information about Czech space projects as well as the information on foreign space programmes having importance for development of the Czech space activities. It covers management of databases of the Czech institutions both academia and industrial and data on space projects being undertaken in the Czech Republic, their status and results.
The office offers help and consultancy at preparation projects, advises SMEs to incorporate into international high technology networks and to search for partners in international space projects. It supports relationships between research and industry.
Moreover, the Czech Space Office also offers information on the Czech space activities and advertises their results inside and outside the country. It arranges seminars and conferences and supports the attendance of Czech institutions and firms in specialized exhibitions dealing with space technologies.
All the CSO work is based on collection and maintenance a database containing data and information about space projects, results and activities of relevant organizations having relation to cosmic activities (presently database includes more than 200 industrial firms).
Last but not least, CSO serves as information point for general public as well as for professionals. It prepares information and advertisement materials describing capacities and potentials of the Czech Republic in space, documents about Czech space activities and their results. It also communicates examples and information on benefits of the space projects to schools and media.
