In November of the same year, the first Czechoslovak satellite, Magion 1, intended for research into low-frequency electromagnetic phenomena in the magnetosphere and ionosphere, headed into a separate orbit.
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Czechoslovak instruments were also used on several Soviet satellites or probes.
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Boris Valníček was born on April 11, 1927 in Jičín, his father was a legionnaire in Russia, where he also met his wife.
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During the Second World War, he worked in the domestic resistance in the Předvoj group, after liberation he studied meteorology and experimental physics at the Faculty of Science of Charles University.
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In 1950, he joined the Astronomical Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, where he first focused on meteorology and long-term weather changes, and later worked as a leader of a space research group for many years.
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His greatest professional achievements include leading, organizing and coordinating the Czechoslovak participation in the Interkosmos space program, the purpose of which was astronomical research using satellites launched into space.
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In cooperation with other institutes and companies, state-of-the-art devices were created and broadcast into space.
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In addition to the transmitted probes, the purpose of which was, for example, to measure the soft X-rays of the Sun and to observe aerosol layers at sunset behind the Earth, the greatest success of the Czechoslovak team led by Valníček was the design and construction of automatic stabilization platforms.
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They were used on Vega probes to explore Halley’s Comet, the planet Venus, and the Mir orbital station.
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Valníček wrote dozens of professional and popular science publications, on Czechoslovak television he participated in the children’s program Magion, and introduced astronomy and space to radio listeners.
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“He was also an enthusiastic hunter and dachshund breeder,” added his son Igor Valníček.
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