Estonia signs cooperation agreement with NASA

TALLINN - Estonia's Minister of Economic Affairs and Industry Erkki Keldo attended the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), the world's largest astronautics congress, in Milan, and signed a cooperation agreement with NASA.  

The minister also visited an exhibition associated with the congress, looking at the joint stand and attending networking events of the Estonian companies Spaceit, CrystalSpace, Datel, CybExer Technologies, Cybernetica, Vegvisir, and Hedgehoge, as well as TalTech, Tartu Observatory and the Tudengisatelliidi SA student satellite foundation.  

Under the Artemis agreement signed with NASA, Estonia will have the opportunity to participate in cooperation between countries aimed at guiding the exploration and use of space. The cooperation agreement will help create a market for Estonian tech companies.

"The agreements open up new business opportunities for our deep-tech companies. Several Estonian companies and the scientific community, such as CrystalSpace, UpCatalyst, the University of Tartu and TalTech, are already developing technologies aimed for the Moon or Mars," the minister said, adding that joining the agreements also supports the vision of Estonia's space policy to create access for Estonian technologies to projects related to the Moon. 

In 2021, Estonian company CrystalSpace supplied Maxar with stereo cameras for a landing unit that is part of NASA's Artemis mission.

"With this, we got a foot in the door, but selling to the US market has been challenging. The share of technology going to the Moon is growing rapidly, we are getting enquiries for cameras for lunar missions on a monthly basis. Joining the Artemis agreement will create an opportunity to facilitate future cooperation with other US companies and missions," said Pätris Halapuu, the company's CEO. 

In his speech at the Astronautical Congress, the Estonian minister stressed that only through cooperation between countries can we protect and preserve the space environment to ensure a positive impact of our space activities.

"We are moving towards a future where there will be more and more physical objects created by Estonian companies in space. This, in turn, makes the Estonian Space Act particularly important, as it sets clear and innovation-friendly rules for the development of space technology in Estonia," Keldo said.

The minister also met with Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), and Rodrigo da Costa, executive director of the European Union Agency for the Space Program (EUSPA). During the meetings, the priorities for the EU's space program for the coming year were discussed. It was good to see that they are clearly linked to creating user-friendly access to space related data, secure communication, and cybersecurity -- precisely the areas where Estonia and our companies have experience and working solutions, the minister noted.

The International Astronautical Congress, organized by the International Federation of Astronautics, is the most important event in the field of space, involving almost all the countries operating in the field of space and the most important companies. The congress had more than 8,000 registered participants and more than 400 exhibitors displayed their products and services in the associated exhibit. The IAC is an annual event, with the first edition held in 1950 in Paris. Estonia has been participating in the annual events since 2008. 

From Milan, Keldo will head to Dubai to participate in the Gitex technology fair with Estonian entrepreneurs in a bid to help businesses open doors to new markets.