Czech Republic becomes member of European Space Agency

The Czech Republic has become a member of the European Space Agency, it was announced on Wednesday. The move comes after 12 years of Czech cooperation with the intergovernmental organization. The European Space Agency now comprises of 17 of the European Union’s 27 member states, and is a partner of the American space agency NASA, as well as NASDA in Japan. Education Minister Ondřej Liška responded to the decision by saying that full membership of the organization would prove ‘massively signficant’ for Czech science.