Report: Polish civilian rockets

The most comprehensive overview of Polish civilian rocket projects.

The Polish space sector is also created by entities which are active in the rocketry domain. The two most recognised entities are SpaceForest company and the Institute of Aviation (ILot). In addition, the Polish Rocket Society (PTR) and many other entities are active, including those supporting CanSat competitions.

An interesting publication by scientists from ILot was published in October 2021. The purpose of this publication is to review Polish civilian missile projects and to present the achievements of recent years.

This publication covers both “large” structures such as the ILR-33 Amber 2k (and ILR-33 Amber 2k) and the Perun rocket and less known smaller structures such as the Pacman rocket or various rockets made by PTR members. Moreover, student projects are also presented.

In total, the authors of this publication list almost 50 missile structures of various sizes, which in recent years have been or are still designed, built and / or tested in Poland.

With the exception of 2020 and 2021, the number of civilian rocket launches has increased in recent years. In 2016, the authors of the publication counted 10 launches of civilian rockets, whereas in 2019 – more than 30. Then there was a clear decrease, which is likely related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is worth adding that the statistics for 2021 are probably incomplete, because at the end of last year, another edition of the Meteor Festival took place (organised by PTR).

Also in 2019, Polish civilian rocket structures reached the highest flight ceilings of recent years: the ILR-33 significantly exceeded 20 km. In 2022, flights to an altitude of over 40 km can be expected.

The ambition of Polish space entities is to reach the “edge of space”: the ceiling or even above 100 km. Probably in the next few years we will witness a rocket attempt to reach space by a Polish civilian rocket.

The report can be found at Researchgate.

(RG)