The ambitious space expedition will involve a Hungarian astronaut as part of a four-member international team, representing a collaborative effort between Hungary and its international partners. As per the contract with Axiom Space, the launch window is scheduled from October 2024 to the beginning of 2025.

The swift growth of the space industry has already begun to impact smaller nations like Hungary, making it necessary for them to address the challenge effectively. In response to the industry’s rapid rise, the government released the country’s first space strategy document in 2021.

‘Big companies are coming to Hungary with R&D budgets that are significant in themselves. Rheinmetall, for one, is the twenty-fourth largest company in the world’, Hungarian Ministerial Commissioner Imre Porkoláb underlined in a recent interview.

Given the country profile of Hungary, it is a refreshing achievement that it has moved up a league to Moderate Innovators, even though its performance is 70.4 per cent of the EU average, below the category average, and its performance growth is also slower than the EU average.

During the announcement of Rolls-Royce’s new research and development investment, the minister highlighted that the company will design the tools necessary for the transportation of the future in its Budapest centre, including components for hybrid and electric aircraft and systems based on high-speed generators.

Rheinmetall is one of the few companies of its type with a proven track record of successful localisation projects. But that is only part of the story. Equally important was the trust that was built between the German corporation and the Hungarian government during the process of expanding cooperation.

Péter Szijjártó welcomed Novartis’ announcement that the Swiss pharmaceutical company is establishing a new regional research and development centre in Budapest, from where it will coordinate its research projects in Southern Europe and Africa.