Prunariu was speaking to Arab News on the eve of his departure home after chairing the committee meeting of the ASE which was held in Riyadh for three consecutive days.

The Romanian astronaut said his committee was able to finalize several matters regarding the forthcoming congress at a meeting held at the headquarters of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) on Saturday morning.

The meeting, he said, was attended by Saudi space flier Prince Sultan bin Salman and KACST President Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel whose organization will be the hosting institution for the conference.

He said the technical sessions of the conference of the congress will be held at the KACST auditorium. He also thanked Prince Sultan, who had extended the best cooperation to make this event a success. Prince Sultan will be the host astronaut at the congress.

Prunariu said he was taking back good memories from the Kingdom and looking forward to come in November to conduct the grand event.

The other members who participated in the ASE committee discussion included Alexander Alexandrov from Moscow, Karol “Bo” Bobko from New York, Rein Ewald from Germany, Soichi Noguchi from Kanagawa in Japan, Richard Richards from Florida, Victor Savinykh from the Russian city of Berezkiny and Charles Walker from Indiana.

The congress will be held under the patronage of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and KACST will be the hosting institution in the Kingdom. According to the committee decision, arrangements for the inaugural ceremony will be made by the local organizing committee headed by Prince Sultan.

“More than 100 astronauts and cosmonauts from all parts of the globe will participate in the conference with their wives,” Prunariu said. There are some 350 space explorers in 35 countries in the world. So far, a total of 525 human beings have travelled into space from Earth.

The last congress was held in Moscow in 2011. Prunariu recalled that the fifth Planetary Congress of the ASE was held in Riyadh in 1989.

Dr. Reinhold Ewald from the European Space Agency based in Germany said the theme, “Space technology for a knowledge-based society,” was chosen realizing the importance of a knowledge-based society. “The concept for knowledge-based society originated some 10 years ago to give a clearer message to the world of the importance of knowledge for a developing society,” he said.

Charles Walker, an astronaut from the United States, said that he was visiting the Kingdom after 23 years and he was happy to see that rapid developments have been made here for the prosperity of the country.

“Saudi Arabia has progressed well with the use of advanced technology.” Walker said, adding that he was able to see more people in the country than what he saw two decades ago.

“High priority is given to education for the populace, which is a clear sign of prosperity of any country,” he stressed, adding that he could see Saudi society wants to preserve the knowledge gained from human experience during the past hundreds of years. “It is also a society keen on using new knowledge for its benefit and advantage of other countries in the region, which would eventually leads to peaceful use of technology around the world,” Walker noted.

ASE is represented by over 350 space fliers from 35 different countries, including Afghanistan, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.