Jubilee of a MAGION satellites father

Dr. Pavel Tříska, The father MAGION satellites, celebrated the 85th birthday

Dr. Pavel Tříska graduated at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University, Prague, and finished his Ph.D. studies at the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. He started working on the research of ionosphere and magnetosphere using ground-based measurements in 1954. Soon after the launch of the first artificial satellites he also began to use data from in-situ measurements on the orbit and proposed construction of the Ionospheric observatory and satellite station in Panska Ves. He was involved in the first Czechoslovak space activities since the beginning of the INTERCOSMOS program. From 1967, he participated in the preparation, implementation and use of a series of space research projects, especially projects and experiments aimed at the research of physical processes in the Earth"s ionosphere and magnetosphere. He became head of the Ionospheric Department of the Geophysical Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, which he led for 20 years. He built a team and a top workplace. This team, after a number of successful aerospace projects, developed  the Czech(oslovak) satellites MAGION 1-5 that were successfully launched and provided a lot of useful data. He was honored with his team for these achievements by Prize of Sciences in 1999. His publication and popularization activities are also wide.