The first Romanian space ship, Helen, will be launched into space in October, as part of a private project initiated by the Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCA), an NGO, Romanian press agency Mediafax informs. Helen, who has been sketched and built by ARCA team, will use eco fuel and a different launch method in vertical flight: it will be lifted with a solar balloon above the Black Sea. The launch project has two aims: to see the first Romanian flight to the moon and to help ARCA progress in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, which could bring the team 30 million dollars.
ARCA projects coordinator Dumitru Popescu acknowledges that has been toil in gathering funds and putting together the technical part. He did not make the budget public, but underlined the fact that the Romanian state did not have any contribution.
The exact date for the launch will depend on weather conditions. Dumitru Popescu says that there are only five days a month favouring such a launch. The project is unique because the rocket will launched from a solar balloon, will use eco fuel and has a special stairs arrangement which will play its impact on the rocket's design, which is not aerodynamic. 95% of the materials used to build it are made-in-Romania. The electronic equipment have been sourced internationally.
The solar balloon has 300 meters, weights 2,000 kilograms and has the volume of a ten-floor block of flats. Google Lunar x Prize is an astronautical and new media competition launched in 207 by Google to stimulate spatial private projects with small costs. The teams need to send a robot on the Moon, able to move 500 meters after the landing and transmit photo and video images. ARCA currently ranks the second place in the competition. The first Romanian space ship, Helen, will be launched into space in October, as part of a privat
