MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2021) New Director General of European Space Agency (ESA) Josef Aschbacher, a former director of ESA Earth Observation Programmes, has officially assumed his duties on Monday for a term set to last four years, ESA said.
"As of today, 1 March 2021, ESA has a new Director General: Dr Josef Aschbacher, who has taken up duty at ESA Headquarters in Paris, France. The ESA Council appointed Dr Aschbacher in December 2020 as the next Director General of ESA, for a period of four years. He succeeds Prof. Jan Woerner, whose term of office ended in February 2021," the agency's statement read.
Aschbacher, born in Austria, has been working with ESA since 1990. Prior to joining the agency, he was working as a research scientist at the University of Innsbruck's Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics.
Former ESA chief Woerner told Sputnik in February that he would recommend his successor to "go for more cooperation with Russia for sure," referring to the joint ESA-Roscosmos Lunar missions such as Luna-25 and Luna-27.
