Poland reports rise in space‑study interest as public doubts national spacecraft

Poland's Minister of Science and Higher Education Marcin Kulasek announced that enrolment interest in space‑related university programmes has risen by more than 30 percent. He attributed the increase to the recent ISS mission of astronaut Sławosz Uznański‑Wiśniewski and a series of outreach meetings that reached about 15 000 young people in 17 locations. Kulasek also highlighted that many first‑year students abandon certain programmes, with dropout rates up to 60 percent, a trend he says is common across Europe.

A separate poll commissioned by Virtual Poland and conducted by the Ariadna research panel shows that 46 percent of Poles are skeptical about the country's ability to build its own spacecraft, while only 26 percent express confidence in Polish technical capabilities. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has pledged to develop a Polish spacecraft, a goal supported by the European Space Agency, but public opinion remains cautious.

The findings illustrate both growing academic interest in the space sector and lingering public doubt about Poland's capacity to undertake large‑scale space engineering projects.