Dr. Ing. Dumitru Prunariu

Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu is the first Romanian cosmonaut and the 103rd in the world, accomplishing in May 1981 an eight-day space flight on board Soyuz-40 spacecraft and Saliut-6 space station. Dr. Prunariu is a member of the Board of the Romanian Space Agency. He is one of the founding members (1985) and former President (2011-2014) of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), was also the President of the Romanian Space Agency (1998-2004), the Ambassador of Romania to the Russian Federation (2004-2005), the Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) (2010-2012), Co-vice-chair of the UN COPUOS Working Group on Space2030 Agenda (2018-2021), representative of Romania in the International Relations Committee of the European Space Agency (ESA), Member of the Trustees Board of the International Astronautical Academy (IAA), the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Asteroid Foundation, and also a member of the Moon Village Association (MVA) Advisory Council. Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu is an honorary member of the Romanian Academy (since 2011). For his accomplishments, an asteroid was named with his name, the asteroid “10707 Prunariu”. Dr. Prunariu promoted at the level of UN COPUOS, on behalf of his country, Romania, the establishment of the Action Team on Lunar Activities Consultation (ATLAC) which was approved by the committee at its 67th session in June 2024.