BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 6. Azerbaijan already has satellites orbiting the Earth, but it has the potential to launch more, astrophysicist and former astronaut of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) John-David Bartoe told TurkicWorld.

He noted that Azerbaijan is actively working on training its new astronaut specialists, adding that this is probably the most important part of the development strategy for the field, as training future generations contributes to its long-term development.

"About 600 people have been in space so far. I think that number will increase by another 600 in the next 10 years. This growth will be possible due to the active development of this sphere, including the participation of new private companies, which contributes to the rapid development of the space industry," Bartoe added.

Within the framework of the 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku, a cooperation agreement was signed between Azercosmos and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) on the development of new observation satellites for Azerbaijan.

According to this agreement, two satellites will be manufactured within the framework of Azersky-2 program.