Israel’s Space booth at the UN

For the first time, the Ministry of Science’s Israel Space Agency ran a booth presenting Israel’s space capabilities at a week-long large exhibition run by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, in honor of its 50th anniversary of international collaboration between June 18th to June 22nd. At the exhibition, there are more than 3,000 representatives from 80 countries that are engaged in the space community.
 
Israel had a large presence at the conference and in the UN COPUOS last week. During the conference, the Director of Israel Space Agency in the presence of the Minister of science Ofir Akunis signed a Letter of intent for collaboration with POLSA – the Polish Space Agency. The future collaborations include space research, promoting startups engaged in space activity and development of satellite and robotics systems. 
 
Moreover, Israel’s representative, the Diplomat Keren Shahar began her position as Deputy Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), representing the Western Countries and Others Group (WEOG) in the committee management. The selection of Keren Shahar was carried out in a vote at the UN Assembly in New York, This is the most senior appointment of an Israeli representative to date in this committee. 
 
40 countries and organizations, including the Chinese Space Agency, European Space Agency and the Indian Space Agency participated in the exhibition at the UN building in Vienna as well as Arab countries, such as the United Arab Emirates. The Israeli booth featured a model of Venus – Israel’s first environmental research satellite that was launched last August. The model of Venus was presented in a joint side-event organized by France and Israel and later donated jointly by CNES and the Israel Space Agency to a permanent exhibit at the UN Building in Vienna. The booth also featured hi-tech and space industry companies, which have developed satellites, vest to protect deep space radiation , space computer, a expandable communications antenna for space, and a lab satellite, as well as educational projects such as a model of the Duchifat Satellite developed by high school students and the SpaceIL spacecraft.  
 
In a panel of Heads of space agencies , the director of the Israel Space Agency, Avi Balsberger spoke, explaining that technologies developed for space needs, some of which were developed in Israel, enhance the daily life of people around the world and help protect the environment, manage natural resources, predict the weather, communications, navigation, etc. Blasberger said Israel has a lot to offer the world and is happy to collaborate with countries that are interested.