On Thursday 19 March, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that the Republic of Cyprus had become an Associate Member of the Agency, on Tuesday 17 March, following the entry into force of the Association Agreement signed on 23 October 2025. This agreement was ratified by the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus on 6 March.
“The seven year agreement opens the way for Cyprus’s participation in ESA’s optional programmes”, says the ESA press release.
In particular, Cyprus will participate in several ESA optional programmes in strategic areas, including FutureEO (Future Earth Observation), ARTES (Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems), GSTP (General Support Technology Programme) and ACCESS (Accelerating Commercialisation and Competitiveness of the European Space Sector).
In addition, ESA will implement a Requesting Party Activities (RPA) programme, fully funded by Cyprus and reserved for Cypriot entities. This programme aims to further support the development of Cyprus’ national space ecosystem and to facilitate stronger involvement of Cypriot companies and research institutions in ESA optional programmes.
ESA Council. At the end of the ESA Council meeting held in Interlaken (Switzerland) on 19 March, the Council Chair at delegate level, Switzerland’s Renato Krpoun, whose term of office ends in June, announced that one of his current Vice-Chairs, Spain’s Juan Carlos Cortes Pulido, would become Chair. Tanja Permozer, head of the Slovenian delegation, and Kimmo Kanto, head of the Finnish delegation, will become Vice-Chairs for a two-year term starting on 1 July 2026.
Approval of the EPIC mission concept. The Council has approved the concept of the EPIC (ESA Provided Institutional Crew) mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The aim of the EPIC project is to optimise the strategic use of the ISS by Europe during its final years of service, particularly for scientific purposes.
International cooperation. The Member States have approved ESA-JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) cooperation on Ramses, a mission to study the Apophis asteroid in detail.
In addition, the Council agreed to Canada’s participation in several ESA programmes: Accelerating Commercialisation and Competitiveness of the European Space Sector (ACCESS), European Resilience from Space - Earth Observation (ERS-EO), Moonlight and FutureNAV.
With regard to cooperation with ESA, the ESA members reviewed the progress made in preparing the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF 2028-2034), in particular the legislative work being carried out within the EU on the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), but also on the draft EU space legislation (Space Act).
Proba-3. In addition, ESA Director General, Josef Aschbacher, announced that the Proba-3 signal, lost on 14 February, had been recovered during the night of 18 to 19 March. On 14 February, an anomaly on board Proba-3’s coronagraph triggered a chain reaction that caused a gradual loss of attitude (the spacecraft’s orientation) and prevented its planned transition to survival mode. Proba-3 is the first European Space Agency (ESA) mission dedicated to observing eclipses. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)