The Cypriot team Galactic Angels was ranked second at the international DefInSpace competition on space defence.
The team, comprising 17-year-old Athena Vourgos and 18-year-old Giorgio Daniil Ourris, represented Cyprus end of June in the international competition of space defence, DefInSpace, which was organised by the French Space Command (CDE) in Paris.
This is the first time that DefInSpace goes international. It came to Cyprus as well, through the Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation (CSEO) as one of a handful of countries that have been selected to run this high-profile competition.
The Cypriot team won second place among 300 entries in the category 1, which aims to provide regulatory and strategic solutions to space problems of congestion of orbital positions (with satellites and other space objects of technological origin), as well as space defence from natural phenomena such as asteroids. The French team “Forest” won the first prize.
In statements to CNA, CSEO President George Danos said that “we are particularly proud that Athena and Giorgio won the 2nd place internationally and thus Cyprus once again stands out in an international space competition. We saw the team’s talent from the beginning, we supported them and we are happy for their success.”
The global winning team will have the opportunity to attend the launch of a rocket and its satellites at the European Space Agency’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guyana.
Furthermore, the participants receive mentoring on space engineering and space matters. They are also provided with networking opportunities and possibly even career opportunities.
DefInSpace is part of CSEO’s Innovation and Start-up program – creating innovative solutions to challenges in space exploration and research and progressing them into commercial entities, as part of CSEO’s space cluster, stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship.
The Cyprus News Agency was the media sponsor of the event held in Cyprus that selected the team to represent the country in the international competition.
Source: Cyprus News Agency