The Polish Space Agency (PAK) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) signed an agreement of cooperation on the exploration of space on Thursday, Poland’s Entrepreneurship and Technology Ministry reported.

According to the PAK head Michał Szaniawski the agreement “confirms that Poland and the US are ready to undertake serious partnership collaboration in the field of robotics and space exploration as well as activities for planetary protection, development of science and the application of benefits it entails.”

Poland’s role in the space industry along with the performance and use of Polish products in various international space missions is increasingly noticeable. Over the last 40 years over 80 pieces of apparatus designed and constructed by Polish scientists and engineers were used in space projects. Examples include sensors, probes and components of the Mars Curiosity and InSight NASA landers.

“Today, the cosmos is closer to our everyday life than many of us think, whereas the space sector provides a great opportunity for the development of Polish scientists and entrepreneurs,” said Entrepreneurship and Technology Minister Jadwiga Emilewicz.

The ministry wrote that seven years of Poland’s membership in the European Space Agency (ESA) has contributed to the dynamic growth of the Polish space sector with as many as 350 companies operating in it. “Polish companies and research-and-development institutes have been cooperating with ESA and other space agencies like NASA, DLR, JAXA and CNSA,” the ministry noted.

Ms Emilewicz also said that “space is not a far-off domain but one of the most modern and most technologically advanced branches of industry that we benefit from on a daily basis.”

From the Polish News Agency