SGAC Completes Two Successful Weeks at the Annual Meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

21 June, 2010

The 53rd Session of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) was held 9-18 June in Vienna, Austria. SGAC, which has been a Permanent Observer in COPUOS since 2001, contributed a general statement, a presentation on results from 2009’s Space Generation Congress, and individual SGAC country reports to this year’s session. Additionally, SGAC held its first Advisory Board meeting.  SGAC leadership who attended were Chair, Agnieszka Lukaszczyk, Executive Director, Ariane Cornell, Italian NPOC, Vanessa Passoni, and Japanese NPOC, Hiroshi Yamashita.

Executive Director, Ariane Cornell, gave the official statement for SGAC on 10 June which explained broadly the activities that SGAC has engaged in during the past year since COPUOS met last. Underlined in this speech were the number of scholarships that SGAC has provided for its members to attend conferences; the NEO, disaster management, and YGNSS projects’ work that SGAC members have achieved; the development of SGAC’s new Advisory Board; and the gratitude SGAC has for its committed sponsors and partners. For the full statement, please click here: SGAC Statement

On the same day, SGAC held its first Advisory Board meeting at the United Nations. In this meeting, board members were given a summary of SGAC’s history, status, and strategy. The lively discussion that followed was full of valuable suggestions and input. For a complete recap of the meeting, please click here.

• Peace: What type of legal and policy tools are still needed to enable long-term peaceful uses of outer space
• Industry: The current relationship between the space sector and the next generation of the international space workforce
• Exploration: How to sustain, generate, and enhance general public and political awareness and excitement about space exploration
• Climate: How space technology can complement terrestrial technologies in mitigating the problems of climate change
• Agency: The uses the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) in structuring transportation systems in developing countries

This presentation was particularly well received because it contained innovative ideas directly from international university students and young professionals. For the full presentation delivered to COPUOS, please click here: SGC COPUOS Presentation

For the full SGC 2009 report please click here: SGC 2009 Final Report

In addition to these presentations, SGAC distributed to member States of COPUOS the 2009 individual country reports which were produced by the National Points of Contact for their respective countries. This demonstrated on a nation State level the reach and energy of SGAC members.

SGAC is very pleased with its activities during the 53rd Session of UN COPUOS. SGAC’s work at the UN demonstrates that eleven years since its inception SGAC is continuing to fulfill its mandate of collecting, honing and delivering to decision makers the space policy views and opinions of university students and young professionals. SGAC looks forward to the next UN COPUOS gathering at the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee meeting in February 2011.