Education and Science, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Technology

Worner on January 18th at a meeting with Estonian Entrepreneurship Minister Liisa Oviir recognized Estonia's innovative technologies, and invited Estonians to dream big and apply to take part in the astronaut program, Oviir was quoted by spokespeople as saying.

"In spite of the small size of our country we can apply on the same grounds as other ESA members," Oviir said. "Estonia's first astronaut might sound like an overly ambitious idea, but in space one has to dream big," she added.

At the meeting with Worner and members of ESA management it was agreed that Worner will visit Estonia in the fall.

At present student satellites are being built at the University of Tartu as well as the Tallinn University of Technology and Worner promised to find ways to launch student satellites to the orbit also in 2017.

ESA expressed a wish to implement the strong competence of Estonia's information and communication technology to make its internal digital processes more efficient.

Estonia is a member of ESA as of Sept. 1, 2015.