Greece enters space race with NASA

Greece’s national space agency entered into an agreement with NASA on Monday, with the signing of a joint statement of collaboration.

The Joint Statement between the Hellenic Space Agency (HSA) and NASA notes the two agencies' intention to explore the potential for bilateral collaboration in space and Earth science.

The new collaboration agreement foresees the HSA carry out the first Greek project on the Moon by sending up a robotic lunar vehicle, which is expected to take place in 2022. The target of this programme is to explore the soil of the Moon for the acquisition of data that will belong to the Greek State and will be exploited by the Greek Universities and research programmes

The agreement was signed by HSA CEO, Dr Georgios Mantzouris and NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine, in the presence of the Minister of Digital Policy, Communications and Media, Nikos Pappas, and HSA Chairman Christodoulos Protopapas, on the sidelines of the World Space Symposium held in Colorado Springs, USA.

According to the Greek government the signing of this agreement will lead to a new era in the exchange of knowledge under the protection of the cooperation environment of the official space agencies of the two countries as it is estimated that NASA and HSA will proceed with the "joint launch of potential collaboration" in space.