Today, humanity is returning to the Moon with different ambitions, using entirely different technologies. People will follow events on the Moon online, and all the technologies being developed in space will help solve the most complex challenges on Earth. Renowned astrophysicist and Starmus festival founder Garik Israelian said this at a meeting with journalists on November 3, introducing Kam Ghaffarian, the 17th laureate of Armenia’s State Award for Global Contribution to High Technologies (Global High-Tech Award) for 2026.

“Kam Ghaffarian is one of the people who have made the greatest contributions to this field. He inspires millions of people to pursue science.

Today, projects in the highly competitive field of space technology cannot be carried out without the efforts of the private sector,” Israelian noted.

According to him, this is one of the sectors that did not experience a downturn during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our generation witnessed the beginning of human space exploration. At the same time, a remarkably creative generation emerged, inspired by these events. Among them are Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer, who told me in conversation that these events had inspired them. The same applies to director Stanley Kubrick, one of whose films features music from Aram Khachaturian’s ballet ‘Gayane.’

Then came the next generation, led by Elon Musk, who announced his intention to conquer Mars. Jeff Bezos and Kam Ghaffarian also joined this initiative. Ghaffarian’s company, X-energy, will help build a base on the Moon and work with other companies to tackle shared global challenges.

These are challenges that drive humanity’s progress. We are accustomed to governments addressing such global challenges, but now individuals have emerged who are advancing science. Such scientists have always existed, and this trend can now also be seen in the field of space technology,” Israelian added.