Slovakia ready to participate in European Space Agency projects

Slovakia's Ambassador to France Marek Estok on Monday passed a verbal note to European Space Agency general director Johann-Dietrich Worner giving notification of the conclusion of an agreement on cooperation between Slovakia and the European Space Agency (ESA). The agreement was signed by Education, Science, Research and Sport Minister Juraj Draxler on February 16, 2015 and later ratified by Slovak President Andrej Kiska on January 14, 2016. It's valid as of the day of the verbal note's submission. Worner stated that this day is significant for both Slovakia and ESA and is the first step for their further cooperation. Estok said that Slovak entities are ready to participate in ESA projects, which was earlier confirmed by preparations to launch the first Slovak satellite skCUBE. The skCUBE, which was developed and built by Slovak engineers and scientists, will be carried into space by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle of American aerospace space transport services company SpaceX from Vandenberg spaceport in California in May.