Brussels, 09/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - At the end of February, Hungary signed the accession agreement to the European Space Agency (ESA) convention. The ESA stated that Hungary had “an extended tradition in space activities” - its first cosmonaut, Bertalan Farkas, was sent into space in 1980. In addition, Hungary had already implemented a cooperation agreement with the ESA in 1991, before signing the European Cooperating State (ECS) agreement in 2003. The ESA currently has 20 member states. Like Hungary, Estonia also recently signed the ESA accession agreement. Both countries must still ratify the agreement for their accession to be fully effective. (Jean Comte)