Bulgarian space studies - past, present and future

This paper presents chronologically the Bulgarian achievements in space research. The creation and development of the Space Research Institute (SRI) started in 1969 and in 1972 Bulgaria launched its first space equipment onboard the Intercosmos-8 satellite. A number of joint satellites, heavy geophysical and meteo rockets under the Intercosmos program were developed. The apogee of Bulgarian space research activities was the development of research programs involving two Bulgarian astronauts, 11 units and included systems. The SRI takes an active part in cooperative studies with various foreign and international programs. Two of the successful projects were the Svet Space Greenhouse and Neurolab-B which involved cooperation with American and German institutes and were launched onboard the Mir Orbital Station. The collaboration continued with Russia in the Priroda International project, which was realized onboard Mir. Since 2000 SRI has taken part in 3 projects under the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Community. SRI has concluded contracts with the Brazilian company BRAZSAT. The Institute is licensed to distribute images through the Russian state company SOVINFORMSPUTNIK. More recent activities of SRI involve projects for scientific research on the Russian module of the International Space Station as well as projects for the 5/sup th/ Framework Programme of the European Union.