Following Wednesday’s announcement that Igor Ashurbeyli and a team of scientists from around the world will create the first Space Nation, 100,000 people immediately applied for citizenship of Asgardia, smashing its target within 48 hours. In response, Dr Ashurbeyli, the founding father of Asgardia, has today announced a new target to attract a million earthlings to become citizens by the end of the year.
Dr Ashurbeyli said; “In only 40 hours since I have announced the birth of the new space nation Asgardia one hundred thousand people from more than two hundred countries on Earth have applied to join. I would like to welcome and thank you personally. Now we are continuing the registration aiming to bring together one million people. Soon we will become a member of the UN. Thanks again for your support. Together we are Asgardians.”
On 12 October 2016, at a high profile press conference in Paris, Asgardia announced the first satellite of the new nation is planned to be launched in 2017. The news was followed across the world with major outlets from over 30 countries covering the announcement. Experts and members of the press hailed Asgardia as ‘bold’, ‘exciting’ and at the very forefront of developments as we head towards a new age of space exploration.
The project team is being led by Dr Igor Ashurbeyli, one of the Russian Federation's most distinguished scientists and founder of the Aerospace International Research Center (AIRC) in Vienna. In a separate event in Paris on 11 October 2016, he became chairman of UNESCO’s ‘Science of Space’ committee. Dr Ashurbeyli has consulted a group of globally renowned scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and legal experts on the development of the concept.
To register an application to become a citizen of Asgardia, earthlings can apply via its website at www.asgardia.space and take part in competitions to design the Asgardian flag, anthem and insignia. Further media announcements about the project will be made in due course, but meanwhile other new developments can be followed via its Twitterfeed: @AsgardiaSpace.
Dr Ashurbeyli concludes,“one of the key motivations behind Asgardia has been to increase access to space for countries currently excluded from the space race. We want to enable more scientists and more businesspeople from all over the world to be involved in space development, and help protect planet earth from cosmic hazards. But we also want to fire the global, public imagination about the possibilities of future space exploration, so it’s heartening to see how many people from all walks of life have started to engage with Asgardia. They are all welcome.”
