POLSA chief Marta Wachowicz wrote to members of the agency's council demanding that Uznański-Wiśniewski stop making public statements about the body's strategic projects, state security and international cooperation.
Copies were sent to three government ministers.
In her letter, Wachowicz cited a May council meeting at which the astronaut said the EU satellite communications programme IRIS2 served German and French interests rather than Poland's.
She said the remark was "unambiguously political" and had no basis in either the programme's framework or European cooperation agreements.
Wachowicz argued that further public statements by the astronaut posed real organisational, reputational and security risks, and were undermining confidence in Polish public institutions and their international partnerships.
Uznański-Wiśniewski rejected that characterisation.
He said his comments had been taken out of context and referred only to the distribution of funds – specifically, that most IRIS2 money would flow to companies outside Poland, primarily in Germany and France, because Polish firms currently lack the capacity to build telecommunications satellites.
Writing on social media, the astronaut said he had not received the letter but was responding to media reports.
"I interpret the demand for a ban on my public statements as an attempt at censorship, marginalisation and silencing of critical voices," he wrote.
He also said he had used the council meeting to ask Wachowicz a series of questions about the agency's budget and operations in 2025 and 2026, and received no substantive answers.
Uznański-Wiśniewski stressed that he does not represent POLSA and has no ambition to speak on its behalf, but that as Poland's astronaut he continues to engage with public institutions, employers' organisations and the wider space industry in support of the country's space sector.
The Ministry of Development and Technology, which oversees POLSA, confirmed it had received the letter on 19 May and said the matter would be discussed at the agency's next council meeting in June.
The dispute comes amid a separate complaint from current and former POLSA staff alleging labour rights violations and a loss of the agency's institutional capacity to fulfill its statutory duties.
(ał)
Source: PAP