Lithuania becomes the eighth country to sign the European Cooperating State Agreement with ESA.

This agreement strengthens Lithuania’s relations with ESA, becoming the eighth European and the third Baltic country to join this status.

ESA’s Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and the Lithuanian Minister of Economy, Evaldas Gustas, signed the agreement at ESA Headquarters in Paris on 7 October 2014.

Lithuania has a tradition of space activities with its participation since the 1980s in the Russian space programme. The Lithuanian Space Association was created in 2009 and the government decided to develop the Lithuanian Space Policy in June 2010. The first Cooperation Agreement with ESA was signed in October 2010, in Vilnius.