As a dependable partner for international space agencies, the Graz Space Research Institute (IWF) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) has been successfully leading Austria into space for more than 50 years. With scientific know-how and high-precision instruments, the IWF is on board of numerous spacecraft exploring our solar system and our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

The achievements of the Space Research Institute have contributed significantly to Austria’s development over the past five decades into an internationally recognised and important space centre. This success was celebrated at a closed event on Tuesday, 28 June 2022.

In order to also let the wider public participate in the anniversary, the special exhibition MISSION POSSIBLE! was shown in the CoSA - Center of Science Activities between 18 December 2021 and 11 September 2022. The exhibition was realized in cooperation with the Graz Children‘s Museum FRida & freD and provided insights into the complex and exciting work of the IWF. Visitors learned how a space mission works while they particpated in a fictitious mission: The journey to Enceladus, one of Saturn's largest moons. The common thread running through the exhibition was a comic strip, telling the activities of the Graz space researchers in 21 pictures over a length of almost 30 metres. Original flight instruments were integrated into the comic and had to be discovered by the visitors.

Book recommendation:

Austria's History in Space