Press conference, from left to right: Jonathan Margolis, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, USA, Jioi Zak, Deputy MInister for Transport, Czech Republic, Antonio Tajani, Vice-President of the European Commission, Giuseppe Pizza, Secretary of State, Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, Italy, Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General, Jialin Cao, Minister of Science Technology, China and Alexey Korostelev, Director International Department, Roscomos, Russia.
Discussions will focus on space exploration when ministers and heads of agencies of most of the world’s space-faring countries rendezvous on Thursday in Lucca, Italy.
High-level representatives from 41 countries, including the 29 ESA and EU states, are invited on 10 November for the Third International Conference on Exploration and the first High-level International Space Exploration Platform.
The participants will build on the debate begun on a European level in Prague in 2009 and continued in Brussels last year during the first dedicated conferences.