La Hongrie adhère à la Convention de l’ESA (Hungary adheres to the ESA Convention)

Hungary adheres to the ESA Convention

24-02-2015 3:10 PM CET

Hungary signed the Accession Agreement to the ESA Convention on 24 February 2015. Once ratified this Agreement Hungary will be the 22 ^thMember State of the Agency.

The signing ceremony, which was attended by Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA, was held at the Palace of Arts in Budapest. For Hungary, the agreement was signed by Ákos Kara, state minister in charge of information technology and communication and the Consumer Protection (Ministry of National Development) in the presence of Fruzsina Tari, responsible Unit Electronic Communications and Space with the Ministry.

Other government representatives and several representatives of the Hungarian Space sector attended the ceremony, including Előd Both, Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to the UN Committee, as well as leaders of the Hungarian Aerospace Technology Platform, the HUNSPACE space pole and the Hungarian Astronautical Society.
Hungary has long cooperated with ESA; it was the first country in Central Europe to sign a cooperation agreement with the Agency in 1991. She was also the first European Cooperating State (ECS) to sign the ECS Agreement, April 7, 2003 in Budapest.

Hungary has a long tradition in space and has actively participated in the Interkosmos program; in this context, the first Hungarian cosmonaut Bertalan Farkas, was sent into space on 26 May 1980. Hungary has participated in the Plan for European Cooperating States (PECS) in the fields of space science, the Earth observation, life sciences and materials, and space technology.

She also participated in several educational activities of ESA, including courses on radar, parabolic flight campaigns for students and the draft Lunar Orbiter ESMO. Hungary's first satellite, type Cubesat, Masat-1, designed and built by students at the Technical University of Budapest, was launched at the Vega maiden flight in 2012.

After the Hungarian government has completed the ratification procedure and that the instrument of ratification is deposited with the French authorities, Hungary is officially the ^22nd ESA Member State.