Israel and Russia Sign Space Cooperation Agreement

By Nancy Atkinson - March 28, 2011 at 4:39 PM UTC | Space Policy
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The Israeli government has signed an agreement with Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, for cooperation in space for peaceful purposes. Areas where the two countries may work together are exploration and research, remote sensing of Earth from space, materials science, space biology and medicine, satellite navigation technology, and launch services. Israel also has similar agreements with NASA and the ESA.

The two countries have already been cooperating extensively in development of high-tech hardware, and Russia has purchased Israeli-made unmanned drones for its security services.

One of the goals of the

Israeli Space Agency

is to promote innovative scientific projects based on international collaboration.

"The trend of international cooperation and unification of forces for action in space is more and more dominant and there are now several major multinational projects like the space station, handling problems and global warming climate research, spacecraft operation… physics and solar system exploration," said Dr. Zvi Kaplan, head of the Israeli Space Agency. "We thank all of the organizations that were active in achieving the agreement, including the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Justice."

Those present at the signing included Kaplan, Anatoly Perminov, head of Roscosmos, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Science and Technology Professor Daniel Hershkowitz, Russian Ambassador to Israel, Peter Stganye, and experts from both countries in space.

According to the

Israeli science news website Hayadan

, Netanyahu said that the combination of Russia's most developed industrial and Israel's sophisticated technology will provide for improvements and changes for both countries in space.

"The road was indeed was short, but the desire to work together existed, and last year the two sides accelerated the pace, because of the desire to get started," said Menachem Grinblum, Director General, Ministry of Science and Technology. "We expect the agreement will be translated into joint action research institutions and industries in both countries."

Source:

Hayadan,

with special thanks to editor Avi Blizovsky.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com