High-level representatives from 41 countries, including the 29 ESA and EU states, were invited on 10 November for the Third International Conference on Space Exploration, and the first High-level International Space Exploration Platform.

Discussions focussed on space exploration, when ministers and heads of agencies of most of the world’s space-faring countries met in Lucca, Italy, 10 November.

The participants will build on the debate begun on a European level in Prague in 2009, and continued in Brussels last year during the first dedicated conferences.