Azerbaijani President, First Lady attend opening of exhibition within framework of 74th IAC [PHOTOS/VIDEO]

An exhibition has been organized as part of the 74th International Astronautical Congress., Azernews reports.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and their son Heydar Aliyev attended the opening of the exhibition.

Following the ribbon cutting ceremony symbolizing the opening of the exhibition, the attendees familiarized themselves with the stands of participating companies.

The pavilion of the exhibition, installed on an area of 8,000 square meters, features the stands of 150 companies representing 36 countries.

The head of state and the First Lady viewed the stands of the Turkish Space Agency, the Saudi Space Agency, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Indian Space Research Organization, the Israel Aerospace Industries, the Italian Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Chinese Society of Astronautics and other companies.

The Baku Congress has already surpassed the congresses held in Australia, Germany, U.S., UAE and France in terms of number of sponsorship packages bought by 22 companies in space industry. The Congress has over 30 sponsors.

4 main sponsorship packages, including Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze ones, were bought by the US companies such as “Space X”, “Axiom Space”, “Blue Origin”, “Boeing”, “Lockheed Martin”, “BlackSky” “Vast”, “Northrop Grumman”, the Chinese Society of Astronautics, the Turkish Space Agency, the “Plan S” technology company, the Saudi Space Agency, Israel Aerospace Industries, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, the Indian Space Research Organization, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, “ispace”, “JGC Holdings Corporation”, “Astroscale” companies, “Aiurbus” Office in Germany, Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications, Portugal's “Neuraspace” company, Bulgaria's ‘EnduraSat” company, Austria's “Asgardia Space” company, the Italian Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the UK Space Agency, Amazon's “Project Kuiper”, “Jet Propulsion Laboratory”, and “Voyager Space” company.

Founded in 1951, the International Astronautical Federation is the world’s leading space advocacy body with more than 460 members in 110 countries, including all leading space agencies, companies, research institutions, universities, societies, associations, institutes and museums worldwide.

As organizer of the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC) – world’s premier global space event – and other thematic events, the IAF actively encourages the development of astronautics for peaceful purposes and supports the dissemination of scientific and technical information related to space. Azerbaijan has been a member of the International Astronautical Federation since 2003.