Dear space friends,
Last week I was privileged to attend COPUOS that was held in Vienna, Austria under the auspices of United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. It is to say that this was a real honor for me to assist at such meeting together with highly respected delegates from represented within UNO countries and organizations that have an observer status. Space Generation Advisory Council being one of them occupied an active position following a crucial expression “The secret of getting things done is to act!” due mainly to Agnieszka Lukaszczyk and Ben Baseley-Walker participation. Moreover, I was truly impressed by the technical presentations made by Bee Thakore on Disaster Management and Johanna Catena on Space Traffic Management, which inspired me to address thoroughly these substantial topics. It must be admitted that even being long but intense and rich on new ideas they attracted all the attention of audience. As Mr. Chairman to the point emphasized they were more than professional.
It was so exciting to encounter in one place so many people with diverse and passionate space
interest, to meet at once most of my outstanding “space friends”, to make new contacts and
primarily to have an opportunity to share with them the candid views on issues under discussion. Furthermore, thanks to the “after-session” events, more often hosted by the embassies, we had an additional chance to get a better insight of the space culture and traditions of other countries. Likewise, SGAC/ISU dinner that was one of the series of organized receptions brought together the members of a big professional family making this reception verily unique.
Therefore, my standpoint is that COPUOS is a perfect place for exchanging of ideas, experiences and reflections on space subjects and also a good mean for networking. But the question that still being critical for me is to analyze the effectiveness of further considerations and of voluntary implementation of the conclusions that have been made: “what is done after?”
Finally taking into account the fact that no many modifications were made to the agenda starting from its foundation, it is to ask ourselves about the correlation of problematic items to the present space reality. To my personal conviction the level of delegates’ preparation varies as well as the wish to be active or simply to assist to the meeting being a “silent observer”, bringing nothing to the discussion as well as to the space future.
To conclude, I would like to draw the following inference: not simply “great minds of the space world meet together” in COPUOS but the generations as well: from founders to young space
generation irrespective of motivations and reasons of their presence.
In hope that my experience in some way may contribute to a more sustainable exploration of
ambiguous nature of given event, would like to remind Esther B. Fein notice “If the United Nations is a country unto itself, then the commodity it exports most is words”. And in order words doesn’t remain “words” we should act.
Prepared by Olga STELMAKH
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