Beeline, a member of the international group Veon, is a traditional supporter of the local competition of NASA Space Apps Challenge,  the largest international hackathon in the world. NASA Space Apps 323 runs for more than 48 hours in different locations and unites coders, researchers, designers, builders, technologists and creative people to tackle a variety of challenges. This year’s Space Apps event was held online, on  October 2-3, and had 28,286 participants worldwide.

The hackathon in Georgia is organized by Tbilisi Startup Büro and supported by the private and public sectors. The project gives Georgian participants the opportunity to come up with a solution to one of NASA's challenges, to win, to receive cash prizes and compete for a global award.

The winner of NASA Space Apps Challenge Tbilisi 2021 was the team Starship Enterprise. The team consists of Komarov school graduates: Demetre Sazonov, Sandro Glonti, Giorgi Chkhikvadze and Sandro Lortkipanidze. The team built a mechanism that would be able to connect and separate space objects by generating small pulses based on the model of the train coupling mechanism (Janney coupler) created in 1881. This will allow to travel and operate in space without the risk of exploding.

Beeline, within its corporate social responsibility, actively continues to support the development of startup ecosystems and innovations in Georgia. The company aims to promote new opportunities for young people and motivate them. The collaboration between Tbilisi Startup Büro and Beeline within the NASA Space Apps Challenge for the first time took place in October 2019 and has been ongoing since then.

“Beeline supports the development of innovations in the country and helps to motivate young people to create the new. We have been partners with NASA Space Apps since 2019 and we are proud that during this period a number of interesting ideas have emerged on the hackathon. We believe that Georgian scientists will achieve even more success in the future and will actively cooperate with NASA to solve the world's problems,” – they state in Beeline.

“I would like to congratulate the winning team, Komarov’s graduates, and wish them success in solving global problems. As part of the NASA Space Apps Challenge, we will meet next year, at the Abastumani Observatory, where we believe we will discover new talents. Participants will take part in tackling problems on Earth and in space. Our partners play an important role in the implementation of the project. It is through their involvement that we are able to increase the scale and motivate even more participants to get involved in solving world problems”, -  Guri Koiava, co-organizer of the event stated.