that we have heritude, as well misscy mon net at that time dipippo and mr. david kendall from canada, the chair of the united nations committee on peaceful uses of outer space. thank you all for coming. in june of this past year, the u.n. committee on peaceful uses of outer space agreed to 12 long-term sustainability guidelines. we call them the lts guidelines and they represent the first-ever agreed best practices for safe and responsible use of space. this is work that started under the united nations in 2009 and this is a major milestone going forward after seven years of concerted effort. the united states believes that this agreement is a significant accomplishment and major step forward in international cooperation on preserving outer space environment. the guidelines set global norms that will maintain the space environment so that future generations can get benefit from transformative technologies for climate modeling, navigation,

communications and health as well as strength and security. additionally, with the increase of private investment in space it has become even more important to provide a stable, predictable, long-term framework for space operations. these guidelines incorporate a range of best practices including sharing information for space flight safety, expanded cooperation in space weather monitoring and investigating new measures to manage long-term space debris. we appreciate the constructive efforts within the committee to ensure this set of guidelines were completed prior to the expiration of the working group's work plan in 2016. we also look forward to continuings account work to develop additional lts guidelines over the next two years. on the national level, many countries have started looking at how they can implement these first sets of guidelines and we

believe this action taken by nation states, by member states, is an important benefit of the lts guidelines. i can provide a firsthand report on how this is going just yesterday. we held our second-ever bilateral civil space dialogue with china and discussed these very issues and some of our colleagues from that discussion are here today with us. we'll hear more from governmental officials, private sector space experts on how these lts guidelines were developed and their importance moving forward. one of the main themes you will hear today is the importance of international cooperation in ensuring the outer space environment. when we set out to develop the lts guidelines, the member states acknowledged the importance of a global approach to tackling the challenge of preserving the outer pace environment. and today we've assembled an outstanding group of people to speak to you about this. in our first panel united nations experts will discuss the process by which the first set

of lts guidelines were developed and next steps in developing additional guidelines. in our second panel this morning, we will hear from government experts from a cross-sector of regional groups on their efforts to implement the first set of guidelines and their commitment to developing additional guidelines through copious. the third panel consists of private sector stakeholders. we look forward to hearing more about their experience in contributing to the development of the first set of guidelines and how they intend to advance and engage as we move forward. and finally today, we will hear from a number of individuals regarding next steps in developing a second set of guidelines with the goal of creating a compendium of lts guidelines to be endorsed by the general assembly, by the u.n. general assembly in 2018. so on behalf of the state department, let me use this opportunity to thank you all for joining us here today and for thanking them for coming to speak to us. your presence is essential in conveying the understanding and

the importance of space sustainability for the benefit of all mankind and the reasons why we should work together to address this challenge. before i close, let me personally thank michael simpson and victoria samson, both of the secure world foundation. what you're seeing today is the work of not only the state department but ngos and others that have brought you this fuzz discussion format in an open forum and we absolutely rely on organizations like the secure world foundation to make this possible. so with that in mind let me welcome to the podium here michael simpson, the executive director of the secure world foundation. thank you. [ applause ] >> well, for those many of you whose faces are very familiar from several acts of cooperation

and consultation and collaboration in the field of space sustainability, security world foundation probably doesn't need much introduction. for the rest, simply be aware that we have for years described our work as seeking cooperative solutions for space sustainability. and so here we are celebrating space sustainability, advocating increased cooperation and enjoying the presence of so many people with whom we have cooperated along the way to make this day possible. in some ways, i'm welcoming you to a celebration. six hard years of work has brought us 12 guidelines to support the long-term sustainability of space activities. guidelines, remember, that have been adopted among countries who

have not always found consensus easy to achieve. from practical affirmations of how to best fulfill obligations under the space treaties to foundational guidance on the sharing of critical data about satellites, debris, and weather we very coaxed progress out of what looked at times like barren soil. to add to the celebration, we are hearing encouraging reports from the intercessional work that the copious working group on long-term sustainability of space activities has been undertaking since its success last june. these reports fuel hopes that further consensus will bring more agreed guidelines to the table next year.

but, of course, i also welcome you to an event that includes lunch. it's those of us who were thrust by great writers like arthur c. clark and robert behind line into careers in the space sector know all too well, there is no such thing as a free lunch. in fact, today's program will attest there is much work to be done. whether you see the guidelines as soft law or no law at all, they will still have to stand the same test as hard law or sound policy. they will need to impact behavior. as we review the track that brought us here and chart the course to come, i hope we can bear in mind that the way forward will pass through the

seminal work of unispace plus 50 and will carry the weight and aspiration of other broad agreements like the sustainable development goals, the sendai accord, and cop21. so as we get back to the hard work some of us in in room are used to sharing together, i still invite you to think of that work as a celebration, knowing that having kept alive the principle of using space for peaceful purposes, we now get to show how together we can focus those purposes on meeting the greatest challenges of the one planet we all share. so to paraphrase our late-departed mr. spock, celebrate, work hard and prosper. thank you. [ applause ]

good morning, everyone, my name is victoria samson. i'm the washington office director of the secure world foundation and i'd like to add my thanks and appreciation for everyone in the audience for coming and to our speakers for sharing their expertise with us. so with that, enough of the welcomes. let's get the speakers up on the podium and have you guys come up. could the first panelists come up, please.

you should have everyone's bios in front of you so we'll start be with our first speaker, simon net ta dipippo. >> >> good morning, everyone, distinguished participants, guests, and colleagues. i'm very pleased to be here with you today. allow me to thank the organizers for arranging this timely event on the important topics of space sustainability. i would like also to take this opportunity to acknowledge a recent success story about the long-term sustainability of outer space activities. as has already been stated, in and as my colleague elaborate in more detail, in june, 2016, the committee on the peaceful uses of outer space reached a multilateral milestone when it agreed to a first set of

guidelines for the long-term sustainability of outer space activities. this concrete output demonstrates a collective recognition by states that space is a key resource for the benefit of humankind and the that could enhance sustainability and protect the space environment for current and future generations are in the common interest. the first set of guidelines was not, however, developed without genuine effort on the part of many stakeholders. in this regard, i would like to express my admiration for all delegations who participated in the process so far and i would especially like to acknowledge the chair of the working group, peter martinez, for his outstanding role in bringing delegations together in this complex process and the chair, david kendall, for his skillful handing of the adoption

procedures at the session in june. continued collaboration between all interested parties would be of key importance as the working group on the long-term sustainability of outer space activities develops a second set of guidelines and finally a full come pannal guidelines including the preamble text to be referred to the general assembly in 2018. dear colleagues, let me now address some aspects of the interconnection between the long-term sustainability of outer space activities and the strategic work to be undertaken under the 50th anniversary of the first unispace conference, unispace plus 50 to take place in june, 2018. cop pass endorsed a set of priorities which together constitute the common road towards unispace plus 50 and beyond. the priorities as defined and endorsed by cope pass in june

are number one, global partnership. space exploration and innovation. number two, legal regime of outer space and global space governance, current and future perspectives. number three, enhanced informational change on space objects and events. number four, international framework for space weather services, number five, strengthen space cooperation for global health. number six, international cooperation towards low emission and number seven, capacity building for the 21st century. those priorities have been selected based on an assessment of the cross cutting areas of governance, resiliency, interoperability, capacity building and sustainable development. they are strategically interlink and are designed to provide you the result oriented approach for the upcoming work of member

states and the office of outer space affairs. included in this is the fostering of dialogue between governments and ngos, industry, private sector and civil society. the thematic priorities are intended to help us identify the areas where stronger space governance and supporting structures are required to protect the space environment and secure the long-term sustainability of outer space activities. they also help us ensure the benefits of space support missions in implementing the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and reaching these goals. the interlinkages between them reflect the need for stronger coordination, mechanisms on governance, interoperability and resiliency. as an example, space exploration and innovation covered by thematic priority number one is an essential driver for opening up new domains in space science and technology triggering new partnerships and developing capabilities that create new

opportunities for addressing global challenges. there is a strong aim to foster dialogue with space industry and the private sector in this regard. dear colleagues, you will likely have noticed the close connections between the guidelines for the long-term sustainability of outer space activities and the unispace plus 50 thematic priorities. the guideline on the safety of space operations, to highlight an example, are fundamentally linked to the thematic priorities on enhanced information exchange on space objects and on an international framework for space weather services. the fact that guidelines on sharing orbital information on space objects, debris monitoring and space weather forecasts have reached consensus, have already reached consensus demonstrates a clear acknowledgement by the international community of the importance of enhancing

information exchange on space objects and events and on building up an international framework for space weather services. regarding long-term work on the sustainability of outer space activities the thematic priority of the legal regime of outer space and global space governance current and future perspective, that's the title of the thematic priority number two in combination with the thematic priority on enhanced information exchange on space objects and events, number three, is particularly interesting. allow me, therefore, to make an assessment of certain critical interlinkages. thematic priority number two on the legal regime strives to promote the universality of the five united nations treaties on outer space and assess the state of affairs of those treaties and their relationship with related non-legally binding instruments. the thematic priority aims to analyze the effectiveness of the legal regime of outer space and

to identify areas that may require additional consideration. there is a close connection between the work undertaken by relevant working groups of both the scientific and technical subcommittee and the legal subcommittee of copuos. efficiency, coordination it, avoidance of duplication of work are central pillars in this structure. the goal of thematic priority number three on enhanced information exchange on space objects and events is to define and develop requirements for enhanced information exchange and notification procedures, particularly on risk reduction efforts for the safety of space operations, cooperation mechanisms to support this objective should be identified, and capacity building and outreach activities on transparency and confidence building measures encourages. in this context, let me reiterate the importance of building a robust and cost efficient information system

that in the end must serve all relevant actors. i wish to recall for your information a special report by the united nations information coordination better known as u.n. space which is a long-standing formal mechanism which is under is the leadership of the office for outer space affairs. this report was prepared by them in close coordination with the united nations office for affairs and issued for copuos this june, and you can find it as document a/ac 105/1116. the report an addresses among other matters the current information exchange mechanisms and notification procedures under the local regime of outer space for which they discharge the responsibilities of the secretary general. among those are the register on space objects and operational mechanisms instituted under the

outer space treat, the rescue agreement and the outer pace principles. the united nations register is the most important global treaty based transparency and confidence building mechanism in the space arena. given the formal authorirespons to discharge the authorities under the legal regime of outer space, there is increasing attention paid by copuos to study ways of gaining efficiency and avoiding duplication in fundamental registration and notification procedure at a governmental level. any efforts to support robust transparency and confidence building measures call for realistic legally based and policy motivated requirements. the operational needs and requirements must not be underestimated and this is why there is a call by copuos to study those existing long-standing mechanisms as a basis and for enchanced risk

reduction communication. i would like to recall the importance of the extensive review done nearly ten years ago on enhancing registration practice. as you are aware, this work resulted in the successful general assembly 2007 resolution number 62/101. the resolution gives room for additional registration reporting on, for example, the change in status of space objects. it may be appropriate to look into the application and scope of this resolution in forming additional ginsd for voluntary information exchange and risk reduction notification. dear colleagues, let me turn to another but closely related area of sustainability that is also covered by dedicated unispace plus 50 thematic priority, namely on international framework for space weather services. it's becoming increasingly evident that there is a need to strengthen the reliability of space systems and their ability

to respond to the impact of outer space weather and to develop a space weather road map for international coordination and information exchange on space weather events and their mitigation. space weather is recognized as a global challenge and increasing awareness of this issue will help to identify governance and cooperation mechanisms. globally, there is interests in better understanding of space interactions. roo liable operation of ground and space-based assets and critical infrastructures are increasingly dependent on their ability to withstand the detrimental effects of space weather therefore the global community needs to be prepared. unoosa has been involved for many years, especially through dedicated scientific and technical activities with states and national space

agencies. >> reporter: including long-standing collaboration with nasa and through capacity building programs on space weather. we're working closely with the international civilization organizationing in dressing through a series of symposiums areas of concern to the aviation and space communities, including space weather. copuos is presently focusing attention on space weather also through a dedicated expert group on space weather under its scientific and technical subcommittee. this work is closely connected to unispace plus 50 and it serves with thematic priority number four. dear colleagues, in conclusion, i trust that being able to show that while we as an international community have achieved already something significant in this area, a lot remains to be done to enhance the sustainability of outer space activities. unoosa is ready to do everything it can to collaborate with stakeholders to achieve the objectives set out by copuos for unispace plus 50 and beyond.

in the period leading towards 2018, unoosa will use various occasions to raise awareness to present the work of the office and the committee and our efforts to foster peaceful cooperation in outer pace. the office will be organizing a series of three high-level fora, space as a driver for socioeconomic sustainable development. the first forum is being organized by office for outer space fairs in collaboration with the government of the united arab emirates. the forum will be convened from the 20th to the 24th of november, 2016, in dubai. the high-level forum in november this year will facilitate a constructive dialogue between policymakers and key stakeholders in the broader space community to address the impact of economic, environmental, social policy and regulargulatory dimensions of space. the forum will produce a declaration with a set of

recommendations to further shape and position space activities as drivers for innovations, socioeconomic development and diplomacy for a sustainable future. the safety, security and sustainability of outer space activities have a fundamental impact on this process. working with all relevant stakeholders in addressing overarching long-term development concerns, a road map towards space 2030 will give us the tool to define concrete deliverables of unispace plus 50 and beyond based on the four pillars of space economy, space society, space accessibility and space diplomacy. space 2030 should help us, the space community, to address the importance of space activities to fulfill the sustainable development goals and to be sure that while space research, technology, and applications are drivers for socioeconomic development, no one is left behind. thank you very much. [ applause ]

>> next move along the table to david kendall, the chair on the uses of peaceful outer space. >> thank you very much. certainly it's a privilege to be here with you today and to be invited to this event. and i want to commend very much the u.s. state department and secure world for bringings us together to discuss this very important topic and to -- i actually don't like the world socialize but i will use it, socialize these long-term sustainability guidelines. as chair i hope this is the first of many such forums that i'm invited to by different countries. as many of you probably know, copuos has 83 member states, we'll have 84 hopefully by the end of this year when new zealand joins us and this is now very important, this effort that we need to make now to ensure that countries and states understand what we're doing and

what the ramifications of these guidelines will be on i think all space actors in the future. as noted by simonetta and others, we've really reached a very important milestone. it's been a long, hard road and i want to give credit to the people who started this. this started well over ten years ago back with unispace 3 in 1999 when the genesis of the ideas of security and sustainability of outer space were put forward, brought forward by the chair of the scientific and technical subcommittee in the early 2000s, carl deutsche, and was picked up again and really i think was very well developed by gerard brachet who we have in the audience here when he was share some decades ago that really

started the momentum going and supported of course, by the offers for outer space affairs. mass lund led a lot of that and, of course, has been picked up now bycy mon net ta. so there are many fathers and mothers of this process and it has been a very sustained and i think excellent collaboration, clearly a lot of -- you don't come to these agreements without some, i would say, challenges, and there have been challenges. those have been, i think, extremely well handled by peter martinez on my left who will talk much more about the details but i'd just like to really as chair mention the collegiality that we found inside the committee on putting this together. now we have 83 states. not all states have been fully engage add i would say, but all

states have signed on and that's very important. but states such as, of course, the u.s., the russian federation, japan, france, china, india, germany, italy, canada, brazil, mexico, i can go on, these are the leader who have come together week after week to really put these guidelines into the state we have them right now. and let us not underestimate the importance of these guidelines as mentioned by simonetta and others, these are really i believe going to change the way that we work in space collectively and globally. now, it's appropriate these come through copuos, the only really global platform that we have that can discuss these types of issues, and as sim s simon net ta has mentioned we are undertaking right now a re-evaluation of the agenda of

copous to insure that issues dealing with the long-term sustainability, dealing with security in space, dealing with other thematic priorities that simon net ta has mentioned really start tore -- we start to address those in a very open way over the next decade leading as simonnetta through enough space exercise which we will conduct in 2018. one way of looking at the long-term sustainability and the way i like to look at them is using the term that others have used, which is tcbms. transparency and confidence building measures. this term really came out of a -- a group of u.n. group of governmental experts that met about, what will be now four, five years ago. and their report was agreed by the general assembly and is now

being followed. i think that the term is very apropos. we really do have to start working on much more transparency and we are going to need to build confidence amongst the various actors. you know, we hear on a regular basis about the congested nature of space, how it is contested, how it is competitive, and how it is vulnerable. and there's not really a week goes by without some issues that are being -- need to be dealt with on a fairly high level in order to ensure that we do not make a mistake and we have a really bad day up in the -- up above us. these tcbms, these transparent and confidence building measures have to some extent been used over a number of years now to develop a number of forums, not

only the long-term sustainability, forums where one can obtain -- one can get major states together to discuss coordination of their activities in key areas where we're dealing with space. i'll mention a few of them because it has been a -- i would say a relatively successful decade of starting to build this confidence. i mentioned the interagency space debris coordination committee. 13 major agencies that get together and at great detail discuss the way that space debris is being tracked, is being handled, is being mitigated. most of you know about the iedc guidelines, the guidelines that -- non-binding guidelines that sort of guide space actors as to how to mitigate against more -- adding to the space debris.

we have -- well, a very classic one is the international space station. that has built confidence amongst major states in operating together in space. we have two new committees consultive committees, coordination committees dealing with asteroid threats. the international asteroid warning network and the space mission planning advisory group both which came out of the unispace plus 50 and copuos activities which are now meeting on a regular basis to look at how to work together as nations to ensure that we can react to a possible asteroid threat. the icg, the international coordination group on global navigation satellite systems i think is another very good example of how countries are getting together, all those countries who now have interest in global navigation systems are talking to each other about

compatibility, about how they're not going to jam each other's signals, about how they can share relative information. that's a huge breakthrough. again came out of copuos and unispace plus 50. great leadership has been shown there to build this confidence in the way that we can work together. doesn't matter which states we are. so i think that we are on a good track. we need to do more. the long-term sustainability is -- activity is extremely important. we have now as simonetta has mentioned, achieved a certain level of success. we have much more work to do. the first 12 guidelines have been hopefully put in the bank and we are going to be working over the next two years at the next set. and there are some very sensitive issues and peter will, i'm sure, mention some of those issues as we move forward.

it's not going to be easy but we have to work together and now we have to -- as this meeting is why we're here we have to start to talk about these guidelines because these are going to affect the way that nations do their business in space. as a leadoff speaker said, safe and responsible use of outer space is the key. and we need to now to move forward and i'm pleased to be here and i'm really pleased that we are discussing these in such an open forum with all the stakeholders. one of the challenges we have in copuos is that copuos is made up of states. again, i repeat, we have 83, 84 states. the commercial sector, the academic sector are not members of copuos. how do we bring these extremely important parts of the community into the discussions?

how do we listen to them? how do we ensure that we have their ideas incorporated into these guidelines as we move forward? this is part -- and the agenda of copuos as we move forward and this is part of the high level forum of course, that simonetta just mentioned. so i will stop there. but just to say that over the next two years as i am now the chair and take the chair for the next two years of the committee, i give you my commitment this will be the highest priority as far as i'm concerned to bring these long term sustainability guidelines to the general assembly to get them approved in 2018 and to move forward with the agenda to increase these -- the sustainability activities through unispace plus 50. so thank you develop for your attention, and i look forward to

hopefully chatting with some of you the rest of the day. thank you. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> last but not least we have peter martinez the chair of the copous long-term sustainability working group. he had quite a job herding all the cats so congratulations, peter and thank you for coming to speak on this. >> thank you, victoria, good morning, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure for me to be here this morning to participate in this special event coorganized by the state department and the secure world foundation to discuss the very important topic of space sustainability. i would like to thank the organizers of this event for the invitation to participate in this panel and for giving me the opportunity to present the progress of the u.n. copous working group on the long-term outer space activities. the international regulatory framework for outer space activities is predicated on the notion that states as subjects of international law bear

international responsibility and liability for outer space activities conducted by entities under their jurisdiction and/or control. the number and diversity of space actors is increasing rapidly and the space environment is becoming increasingly congested in earth orbit with increased possibilities of contingency situations arising in orbit that could endanger the safety of space operations to the detriment of a wide variety of space actors. the actions of a single actor in outer space could have serious consequences for many other space actors. conversely, no single actor or even a group of like-minded states can adopt measures to mitigate entirely the risks posed by the congestion in the earth's orbital environment. this is an intrinsically multilateral issue. in his remarks, david kendall showed you how copuos is the appropriately

mandated multilateral body to address such questions. at the same time, the non-governmental space actor is growing in size and importance and any multilateral solution to the problems of space sustainability must take into account the experience, capabilities and concerns of non-state actors. the private sector has a lot of experience in the conduct of space activities. it also has a vested interest in a safe, stable, and conflict-free space environment with clear rules for the orderly and predictable behavior of all space actors. copuos has been addressing aspects of the long-term sustainability of outer space activities, or lts, as we refer to it in the committee, for quite a number of years but it's only in the past few years it has taken a who are holistic approach to this topic and i would like to recognize this morning the presence among us of gerard brachet, a former chairman of copuos who played a

leading role in setting in motion the process that led to the creation of this working group. building on the previous efforts of gerard, in 2010, the scientific and technical subcommittee of the committee on the peaceful uses of outer space established a new working group to focus on the long-term sustainability of outer space activities. the objectives and desired outputs of the working group include identifying areas of concern for the long-term sustainability of outer space activities and proposing measures in the form of a set of voluntary non-binding guidelines that could enhance the safe and sustainable use of outer space for peaceful purposes and for the benefit of all countries. in 20111, copuos adopted the terms of reference and the work plan for this working group, which included a comprehensive list of pertinent topics for

consideration by the working group. these topics were clustered into four broad thematic areas and in order to expedite its work, the working group established expert groups to discuss the topics in these thematic areas in parallel. expert group a addressed sustainable space utilization supporting sustainable development on earth and essentially explored the linkages between sustainable development on earth and space sustainability. expert group b addressed space debris, space operations and tools to support collaborative space situational awareness and i'd like to recognize among us the presence today of richard bineke, one of the co-chairs of that expert group. expert group c addressed space weather issues and the effects of space weather on says systems. expert group d addressed the regulatory regimes and guidance for space actors in the space arena and we're privileged to have among us one of the co-chairs of that group professor sergio marcchesio who

will be speaking in a subsequent panel. the expert groups comprised experts nominated by the member states, and i would like to take the opportunity to thank the member states for supporting the participation of the experts in these groups for a number of years. most of the guidelines that we adopted in june this year were the ones that had reached a high level of maturity, particularly because of the inputs of the experts in the early discussions and the proposals of those guidelines. so thank you to all the member states who contributed their experts for quite a number of years. in contrast to the diplomatic negotiating format of copuos discussions, the expert groups were delivered to fora in which the experts exchanged their views and proposed draft guidelines for the consideration of the working group. inputs from nonstate actors were

received through the relevant member states of copuos or through the permanent observers to the committee. these included intergovernmental organizations such as the itu, other u.n. entities such as the u.n. office for disarmament affairs, professional bodies such as kospar or the iaa, international entities such as iso and the iaf and industry associations of several countries. in addition, in 2013, a long-term sustainability workshop was organized during the 56th session of the scientific and technical subcommittee of copuos where representatives of national private sector entities and industry associations were provided with an opportunity to share their experiences and perspectives on lts with members of the working group. by mid-2013, the working group had before it a compilation of candidate guidelines proposed by the four expert groups. in 2014, the working group consolidated the candidate

guidelines proposed by the expert groups to reduce duplication and overlaps and during 2014 and 2015, several member states proposed additional draft guidelines for consideration by the working group. as of the start of 2016, there were 29 draft guidelines under consideration, and it was clear the various guidelines were at different levels of maturity with some being largely agreed and therefore within the reach of consensus by copuos while other draft guidelines still needed substantial further discussion to build consensus. time does not permit me to give you a detailed blow-by-blow account of all the discussions in copuos. i see my co-chair -- my copanelist is smiling here because he knows the details. suffice it to say that in june,

2016, the working group reached consensus on 12 of the 29 guidelines and it noted this state of guidelines was ready for states and international intergovernmental organizations to consider implementing on a voluntary basis. the committee also agreed on a work plan for the period 2016 to 2018 to continue its discussions of the remaining guidelines and preambular text with a view to compiling a kem pendyiam of guidelines for long-term sustainability to be referred to the general assembly in 2018, the same year as unispace plus 50. the first 12 agreed guidelines represent the low-hanging fruit of the lts discussions but they also mark a significant step forward in that they represent the tangible progress that has been made in addressing space sustainability. the first set of agreed guidelines creates a foundation for further consensus building

in copuos. time does not permit me to describe these 12 agreed guidelines in detail here and, indeed, they're readily available on the website of the office for outer space affairs in the annex to the report of the 59th session of copuos. broadly speaking, the agreed guidelines address the adoption and updating of national regulatory frameworks for space activities, the supervision of national space activities and the rational and equitable utilization of radiofrequency spectrum and orbital regions. there are a number of guidelines oriented toward the safety of space operations that address matters such as improving the accuracy of orbital data on space objects, the sharing of such information as well as the sharing of information, models, and expertise on space weather phenomena and on established practices for the mitigation of adverse space weather effects on space systems.

lastly, some of the agreed guidelines address matters of awareness, capacity building and research on ways to support space sustainability and to manage the space debris population in the long term. of the remaining draft guidelines currently under discussion, some are closer to consensus than others. these include guidelines on exchange of contact information of spacecraft operators, exchange of information on orbital events, conjunction assessments for objects in orbit and pre-launch conjunction assessments. there are guidelines on enhancing -- proposed guidelines on enhancing registration practice, on conducting space activities solely for peaceful purposes, on ensuring the security and integrity of ground infrastructures used to support space activities and also proposed guidelines on active debris removal and on

destruction in ves exceptional circumstances of space objects in orbit. not surprisingly, the draft guidelines where we are still far from consensus are those that touch on more sensitive topics such as the removal of space objects from orbit, issues of cybersecurity, technology safeguards and intellectual property safeguards which the -- notice areas of international cooperation and information sharing. it is entirely possible that although the working group may not achieve consensus on some of the proposed guidelines within the current extended work plan, it may reach consensus on the need to continue discussions on those topics within copuos in future. indeed, one may identify topics currently not under discussion which could be addressed by copuos under the general context of lts in the future. perhaps issues arriving from arising from on orbit servicing

or the placement of large scale constellation in earth orbit could be the subjects of such future discussions and possibly future guidelines, future proposals for guidelines. i would like to report in the period since june, we had a very successful intersessional meeting in vienna in late september and we're very hopeful that this has created fertile ground for making further progress in agreeing on additional guidelines in the coming sessions of copuos in 2017. i would like to end my statement with a few reflections on the way forward both in terms of the process and the substance of the lts discussions within copuos. from the process perspective i would like to point out that as the lts process has gathered momentum, so, too, has the number of states participating actively in the discussions. during the expert group stage of the discussions, it was mainly the countries with established space capabilities that

contributed to the initial drafting of guideline proposals. but as the process entered the negotiation stage, more states started participating actively in the discussions. currently this stands at 45 member states. this is a very encouraging trend for a process that can only achieve result by consensus of the growing number of copuos member states which currently stands at 83 and soon to be 84. working by consensus is slow, difficult work, but in the absence of legally binding international instruments to promote space sustainability, the lts guidelines provide a pragmatic way for the global space community to take urgent action now to preserve outer space for future generations. from a substantive perspective, the working group will need to ensure that the guidelines represent a balance of the

interests of nations at different levels of development of their space capabilities. the barriers to space activity are being lowered and many more actors are entering the space arena. it is in no one's interest for emerging space actors to repeat emerging space actors to repeat the lessons learned in the first 50 years of the space age on how to conduct safe and sustainable space activities. therefore, the guidelines should be seen as a strong encouragement for states with considerable accumulated experience that space activities to share appropriate experience, establish best practices and relevant information we merging space actors to the benefit of all users of outer space. this accounts for the strong threat on international cooperation, information sharing, and capacity building that runs through the guidelines. of course the guidelines will only be effective if they are implemented by the member states

to the greatest extent practicable. indeed, implementation of the guidelines will be the litmus test as to whether voluntary non-binding instruments can be an effective means to promote space sustainability. in this regard the implementation experiences of states will be useful to establish the effectiveness of the guidelines as well as to amend them if necessary. here again the implementation experiences of non-state actors will be a valuable source of information for the lts process going forward. we will also need criteria for the consideration of proposals for new guidelines and the amendment of existing guidelines in future. it is worth emphasizing that although the guidelines are voluntary and non-binding, this does not mean they are non-legal in the sense that states may implement the guidelines at national level in a way that has legal character for entities

under their jurisdiction and/or control. the speakers before me have highlighted the linkages ults discussion and the unispace 50 thematic priorities so i will not repeat what they've said. however, with regard to the future of lts discussions and copuos, the runup period to unispace plus 50 would be a good time to think about how we would like to structure the lts discussions in copuos in future. in the immediate post 2018 period, the emphasis on the discussions will probably shift from negotiation of new guidelines to implementation experiences, to the sharing of implementation experiences and discussions on procedures for the revision of guidelines or the introduction of new proposals for guidelines in future. the point is that maybe we should think about lts as being an activity under the main committee of copuos rather than

under the scientific and technical subcommittee, as is the case at present as this would allow for improved coordination and dove tailing of relevant lts-related activities under the agendas of the two subcommittees of copuos. the challenges of lts are inherently multilateral challenges and it's my genuine belief that in multilateral space diplomacy the international community has an opportunity to work together to find ways not only to expand the access to the benefits of space to more nations but also to ensure the space environment is preserved and protected for use by future generations. thank you for your attention and i look forward to hearing the perspectives of the other participants at this event. [ applause ] >> okay, great. that gives us some time for q&a. i'll use the power of the chair to start the discussion.

peter, your presentation raised the question in my mind, do you guys envision guidelines, discussions, to be a permanent part of the copuos work? >> thanks, victoria. i think this is something we will have to discuss in the next few years as the focus, of course, is necessarily on wrapping up the discussion of the guidelines currently on the table but as i said in my remarks, the implementation stage is going to be key so we need to figure out a way in which the implementation phase of lts will be discussed and whether this is through a -- an agenda item or some other mechanism is something we need to discuss and agree in copuos. >> i think from my perspective we do have to find a way to

ensure this activity is not stopped or is not slowed down through the -- after 2018, which is the extend to which the committee has extended the working group on the long-term sustainability. i think, though, there is very good signs that states that are members of the committee understand the importance of continuing this work as simonetta mentioned, there are quite a few linkages between the thematic priorities we are discussing now and the current primary issues that we're dealing with in the future. space debris mitigation and certainly remediation is one that comes to mind straight away and that is part of where i think unispace plus 50 is moving through some of its priorities. space weather is another one

that simonetta mentioned which is clearly something we need to continue to work on and to strengthen the governance i would say, global governance, of this activity. so, yes, i'm very hopeful that we have a good path forward to ensure that we will continue the important work and as peter mentioned, share now hopefully practices that -- where these guidelines are being implement bid many states which i think is absolutely crucial to ensure that dialogue is -- there's a mechanism for that dialogue moving forward. >> following up on that, everyone mentioned that copuos now has 83 -- soon to be 84 members.

that's a lot of different view points and perspectives. i'm wondering if you envision the possibility of changing how copuos functions or the guidelines function to be from a consensus-based organization to majority vote organization. >> i can also reply on this. i'm the executive. >> thank you, victoria. i won't respond directly to the question you've just asked but i will give you a perspective from the lts view point. we are very mindful that as more states join the discussion that there is a danger of reopening guidelines that have been agreed to by consensus in the past so these guidelines that we agreed to in june, there was an understanding in the committee that those would not be touched again in the period for 2018. there may be at the end when we compile the compendium we may need to harmonize some of the guidelines to address issues of

terminology or whatever but there's an understanding in the working group that we would not reopen those guidelines so what do we do between now and 2018? as we move forward and hopefully reach agreement on a number of guidelines in each section. as chair of the working group, i would hope we could be in a situation where as we reach an agreement on guidelines in 2016 to 2018 period, we could agree to bank the guidelines and not reopen them and focus our discussion on the remaining body of material. so that is the pragmatic way in which we are addressing the development of the guidelines in the context where there's a growing number of member states.

>> let me just say as chair having to reach consensus amongst 83 states with different outlooks on the way the world functions is certainly a challenge but also a great benefit. once you do reach that consensus, you have put off the table the issue that states can say i never agreed with that and continuing the debate. you have finished the debate. you have a signed document in 83 states who have agreed to move forward in a certain way. getting there is tricky, yes. but in the end states in the committee understand that. and i think what we have achieved with long-term sustainability is an excellent example of how consensus can be reached in some very, very sensitive areas. i think personally i would not

like to see modus operandi of the committee change because of these advantages one receives when one gets at the end of the process. >> i can keep asking questions but maybe audience members with questions can raise your hands. can you please wait for the mic and identify yourself. >> chris johnson from secure world foundation. you say some guidelines which you finalized some closer to consensus and some which are further away in reaching consensus. can you kind of give an outlook on the challenges in finalizing ones closer, challenges further away, and then within the u.n. what is the destination for

those guidelines, once they are finalized, referral to general assembly and in what type of form within the u.n. are they finalized. thank you. >> thank you for the question. so as i mentioned in my remarks, the guidelines where we're closer to achieving consensus are those dealing with, for example, the sharing of information on contacts of operators, orbital events, conjunction analysis. there are a number of open issues there, but i'm freely, cautiously optimistic we are able to reach agreement on those guidelines, guidelines where i think we may be a bit further

from achieving consensus at this stage are the ones dealing with more sensitive issues such as cyber security or the removal of objects from orbit. there are questions around the legal status of unregistered objects and so on. we will continue in terms of the mode of discussion. we will continue to discuss all these open guidelines in the upcoming sessions of the main committee and scientific and technical subcommittee. we have also in recent years followed the practice of having intercessional meetings. as i mentioned an intercessional meeting in vienna in the last week -- penultimate week of september, which was characterized by a remarkable spider of flexibility and cooperation on the part of all the member states present and a very well attended meeting. so i'm optimistic we will continue to make progress on all

of the guidelines, even the ones we're further from consensus at this point. we may not reach consensus on all elements but i'm optimistic we will reach consensus on many, if not most of them. for those where we don't we may agree to continue those discussions in an ongoing lts process of some sort. with regard to how the guidelines will be taken forward in the general assembly, there is a general understanding in the working group that the guidelines -- once the compendium of guidelines is compiled in 2018, that this will be referred to the general assembly in some appropriate form. that form has to be decided by working group and endorsed by the committee. that decision hasn't yet been

taken. it's the intent general assembly in 2018. >> i'll just add to that. yesterday the report, "the 2016 report of copuos to general assembly was approved by the fourth committee of the general assembly. in that report, it notes -- the report includes an annex which has all the guidelines and those that have been tentatively approved and those that are still being worked upon. there's a note in the resolution that says the annex is not part of the formal approval process. so all states, all 193 states of the united nations now have before them a document which shows the current status of the long-term sustainability activity. although as noted, it is not part of the formal approval of the report for this year. the report does note the process

peter just mentioned, where we will be bringing forward to the general assembly in 2018 a full compendium of agreed upon guidelines is the plan. so again the general assembly is aware of the process as the report without the annex but is aware of the annex and process. >> i actually have a question for you slightly shifting focus a little bit. this has been in the news having signed agreements with sierra nevada corporation and digital globe about cooperative efforts. i wonder if you could explain a little about those agreements and what you hope to get from it and what the status is on that. >> with pleasure. as i mentioned in my statement, there is a need and preparation to look at the entire and broader space community and also

to look at new ways of fulfilling our mandate in a way. under the umbrella of the human space technology initiative which stopped in 2010, we've been signing in particular three agreements recently. one with jaxa for a project dealing with the development of cube sats from principal investigators, proposals from principal investigators from developing countries. and we just saw made the announcement of opportunity last year together, we made the selection together and just selected the first cube set from the university ever kenya, which is going to fly, deploy it from the keba module on the

international space station next year. that's the first part. it's already a first step to start doing capacity building in developing countries in a different way. not only capacity building, training, workshops, technical advisory, which are still very, very important. we continue to do that. there's also another way of helping developing countries with benefits of space activities for their own developments. the second agreement which has been signed back in march, because the one with jaxa was last year, so already advanced in a certain way and we just issued second announcement of opportunity in guadalajara for isc. the second agreement, as i said under the umbrella of sdi is an agreement i signed with the

chinese space agency and is ab agreement in order to allow developing cubs to some experiments in lower orbit through the chinese space station. we are in the process of, let's say, hire someone to do this job and we hope the opportunity could be out second quarter next year maximum beginning of summer period next year. and then we recently signed agreement with sierra nevada corporation that is a strong push in order to develop more and more collaborations with the private sector. in this case sierra nevada a unique development going, dream chaser. the idea is to have by 2021, first u.n. space nation with dream chaser where we will like

to give open access to all countries. so particular attention to developing countries again but to all countries. what we are doing in this case is to look for sponsors and contributors in order to have a donation paid by -- to support developing countries. we have some interesting dialogues ongoing. the announcement of opportunity that's the target should go out july next year if everything goes well. in any case, as i said, time being target launch date is end of 2021 in for a mission in orbit, unmanned mission in orbit for 10 days. for what digital globe is

concerned at greement was signed last year and it's the first agreement the office signed with a private company. you know well digital globe. they are a very well-known company in the world for providing high-resolution images, which is quite important for our activities. so the main goal of this agreement is to develop a platform. mainly for the u.n. system but more in general for all the potential users. the agreement we have that we have to provide requirements for them to develop the best platform possible. in order to prepare them for this development, we have been working together.

up to now we had what is called discovery days. already three discovery days. the first one was last year together with fao, because clearly we're working with other u.n. entities. the first one was in december last year in rome with fao. then we had another one back in may, was in geneva. together observation and wmo. the third one last week organized with undp. this is because what we want to do is really to explain how good is this idea we've been developing and we want to collect users requirements and needs mainly from this stage u.n. entities. i have to tell you we're a minimum 40 people attending in new york. so i expect in the coming months to be able to provide a requirement document to develop this platform. >> other questions. i can keep going. anyone from the audience? sorry.

>> my name is audrey schaeffer and i had the privilege of being involved with negotiation last few years negotiating lts guidelines. in that time political dynamics have shifted quite a bit in a variety of ways both in the committee as well as the world. that has affected the negotiation of the guidelines during that time so i'm wondering from your perspectives, 2018, quite a bit of optimism, which i share, that will be able to complete negotiation of a second set and send full compendium. i'm wondering from your perspectives having watched the process how you think the politics will shape up and what the signs are that we can look toward to be optimistic that we'll be able to have a great success in two years. thank you.

>> i'll start off by not mentioning u.s. presidential election. i'm always an optimist. i believe through the process you know very well being a key member of the team who worked diligently over the past six years, the remarkable leadership of peter to get us to this stage. it relies on certain personalities. i believe the last six year developed a certain relationship between the various actors that has developed basically confidence in the process.

i've been personally very i would say pleased at the way the team works. clearly there's differences of opinion. these differences of opinion, as you point out, stem from geo politics often. but in the end the various states have given responsibility to people that got to know each other and got to know their way of working. u.n. while imperfect is, again, go back took the unique platform. if we didn't have u.n., we'd probably have to reinvent it. where else do we get together in order to discuss issues that are critical to the security and safety of outerspace activities for all actors.

so a bit of a long answer to a simple question, and i am optimistic although who knows what tomorrow will bring in the geopolitical arena. i believe that the major actors are working diligently towards the same area, direction. one thing, let me be quite blunt with you that worries me, discussions not in copious but on the conference of disarmaments and the areas -- more security areas that tends from time to time, i believe, to lean over towards the discussions in the peaceful arena of outerspace affairs. and i am not -- there's many more experts in the room that follow this much more closely. i believe that although there's a bit of -- continues to be

stalemate in the area, there is dialogue going on in these areas, was mentioned, i think, this morning, what was mentioned this morning about discussions between the u.s. and china, for example, on aspects of security in space. these are very positive. i think there is a willing -- i hope there is a willingness to continue those across powers to make sure we have understanding and, again, going back to the phrase that i used at the beginning, transparency which is where we need to be. thank you. >> thank you, david. david has just said much of what i would have said, so i'll be

very brief. audrey, i think you and all the others in this room today who have worked so hard in the development of these guidelines, and i'd like to acknowledge too many to mention by name, but it's been a fantastic privilege to work with such professional colleagues in the past few years in developing these guidelines and continuing our discussions. what i've perceived as chair of the working group is a willingness by the member states -- first in appreciation by the member states that we really cannot fail in copuos. it has to succeed. we may differ on views in terms of the process going forward. there may be differences of opinion on certain substantive matters but there's a lot of common ground where we can make progress. it's my function in the chair to

try and identify common ground where we can build consensus and to develop that as rapidly as possible so we can then focus our discussions on the more difficult issues. i've seen a great willingness on part of delegations to really listen to each other's perspectives and concerns. i've also witnessed quite a lot of flexibility in terms of the discussions certainly that took place in june and more recently in september. and to go back to a point david mentioned about tcbms, the very fact we were able to reach agreement on the first 12 guidelines is in itself tcbm, shows copuos can reach consensus on discussions on sensitive issues and builds confidence for the process going forward. thank you. >> yeah. more on the process, all the

other points have been touched. first of all, something asking, i would like to clarify currently office without space affairs, drafting a paper that will be presented for the first time in subcommittee and 2017 cycle, which means next year, beginning of next year. we are going to present some ideas for discussion and final decision by member stays on the organization of the activities for unispace plus 50, which would be a segment of the normal session in june 2018. where we expect to have two documents, one out of the meeting session in june 2018, one being the usual report,

which will then produce in a way that usually will be in the information document for the resolution and -- general assembly as usual. and then another document which could be probably resolution, again, to be discussed by member states in february next year, which will have a parallel life, which will deal mainly with it. 2018 is really an important milestone, and i would expect that all member states will look at june 2018 as a lending point overall, because from that point on, i am sure they will like to see the look at the future with different perspectives.

so i'm quite confident that will be with all the players working together towards same goal. i'm quite sure june 2018 would be a success. >> we have time for probably one more question. >> i will ask the last question then. seems a real commentary between guidelines and obligations that exist. i'm curious if you guys think that the community will ever move back towards treaties for space issues or are we doing sort responses to this? >> i think this is legal subcommittee to discuss. much easier to discuss this later on in the day. my view is that everybody would

like to see some more teeth in what we're doing. i think there's general consensus on that point. nobody really sees a clear path on how to get there is what as pointed out geo politics is going to be more and more -- it is all part of what we're working with every day in the committee. and the complexity of reaching a treaty now with the 83 states is i wouldn't say overwhelming but close to being overwhelming from the perspective i have unless there is a breakthrough. i think the breakthrough would only really come if the very top leaders of the major states decide this is something which they really need to move forward

on. currently i do not see through g7 or g-20 exercise, this being at that level. i think that's what it will take to make a breakthrough at a treaty level. >> thank you. >> yes, i agree with david. i think it's going to require leadership to move back to treaty making mode. we all know there is not at the present time a great appetite for negotiating new legally binding treaties. instruments like guidelines and pcbms are pragmatic measures we can take. our, i would like to remark that tcbms and guidelines if they are observed and implemented to the greatest extent practical by member states could lead to

established practice of states and that might in the long run create fertile ground for the discussion of more legally binding norms. for the time being, i think tcbms and guidelines are the pragmatic route forward to address a very pressing issues of immediate importance. >> just to say that it's been already mentioned by the the end of the year we will get -- reach 84. i can anticipate already a couple of preliminary information at least other two countries could ask for becoming members. at the very end, i believe this is the proof that we are fulfilling our mandate quite well. the mandate is to bring space to

humankind. the more countries we get on board, the more it seems to me we are doing our job well together. so if you look at the positive side of the story, the more we are, the more we can go together and be sure that what we do is not only, you know, important guidelines in the long-term sustainability but overall entire broad spectrum of space activities is taking care the maximum number possibility of countries and united nations members states. thank you. >> thank you. very well then. all right -- did you -- >> perhaps if i could just make one other remark. even quite apart from talking about new legally binding instruments, perhaps we should first strive to build universal

adherence to space. even members that haven't ratified some of the basic instruments. so i think that is another area that we should pursue to encourage ratification of existing space treaties. >> with that i think we're actually out of time. please join me in thanking that panel for a fascinating discussion. [ applause ] >> hello, could i get everyone to take their seats, please. we have a panel this afternoon and i want to make sure everyone has time, speakers, please come up to the front and take their places. you can see we have a lot of people. i'm going to start the proceeding. everyone is coming up except

alexander ermolaev, the science and technology counselor, his biography is not in the pack right now but we will have it provided to you all at a later time. everyone else's bio is in the packet. we're going to down in the order in which people are site seated. we'll start with pascal and go on. each of you have ten minutes and as i said about time, please keep the time. don't make me have to jump up out of that seat and point at you, okay? >> thank you very much. i am greatly honored to speak in front of the distinguished audience. i'd like to thank the organizers for the invitation to this workshop. i believe i got the honor as a french delegate acting in support of the french ministry of foreign affairs, and

participating for the last five years to the working group on the long-term space activities and group b, co-chair ed on spae debris and situational awareness. france has always attributed the race to the long-term sustainability and has played an active role in this working group. in particular we'd like to recall that the idea of creating such a working group was proposed by the french barchier in 2008 when he was chair of the committee. we all know the necessity here of strengthening the long-term sustainability, safety and security in space. it is our collective best interest for all peaceful space bearing nations to anchor the use of space and minimize orbital debris to protect any

abatement of any spacecraft from risk of collisions and to preserve the space environment. today we are all convinced here that this first set of 12 consensual guidelines agreed last june in vienna was a huge achievement for the committee on the peaceful uses of outer space. however, there's still much work to be done. additional guidelines, probably the most difficult ones, still need to be discussed over the next two years with the goal of forming a fell compendium of guidelines for the committee and to be referred to the general assembly in 2018. this full compendium will coincide with plus 50 and the extraordinary conjunction requires the nts working group to face this new challenge and to succeed in the next two years. please, let me now focus on what

we do in france in terms of best practices for space sustainability. first, the french space agency formed in 1961 is a major actor for auto space stability in france. knes is the agency responsible for shifting and implementing france space policy in europe. the agency is under the ministry of education and research along with the ministry of defense. the agency's more than 2,400 strong workforce constitutes an exceptional pool of talent with some 1,800 engineers and executives, 45% of women for its ability to innovate and forward-looking vision it is fostering new technologies that will benefit society as a whole, focusing on five thematic priorities, access to space, launcher, telecommunications,

observations, science, and last domain security and defense, the domain where i work. in the domain of space situational awareness for outer space sustainability, awareness of the highly dynamic and increasingly complex space environment seems indispensable for assets ensuring access to space and contributing to the security and sustainability of space in the long run. the increasing pressure on the orbital regimes such as leo and geo will drive and foster the need for large scale space situational awareness. i would like to explain here the world's strength and efficiency of our ssa organization in france based on its civilian and military character. there's a full cooperation and very close link between the french and french space agency. this is unique in europe and we are convinced it's the best way

to proceed to address national issues as well as international cooperation ones for outer space sustainability. in europe we want to share with our partners the same feeling of the advantage of duality. the french organization consists of four different levels, the programmatic and decision-making levels, the research and development level. at programmatic and decision making level the french space agency knes, the french joint space command and the french armament procurement agency closely cooperate together for many years to define policy, capacities, and priorities in space and science. at the level the mod operates the civil tracking radars and more that knes uses on a regular basis.

radar operation 2005 designed by the french aerospace lab and operated by the french air force. it catalogues on a daily basis 3,000 objects of one square m t met meter. it is the only operational available for the moment. at operational level we have two operations center in france, the military cosmos center of the french air force is responsible for air and space difference in front of the program according to the french code of defense. the cnes operational center in toulouse consists of a 24/7 on call team of ten specialists dedicated to conjunction assessment, alerts and recommendations of collision avoidance to spacecraft operators and owners.

today 23 satellites are currently protected from risk of collisions, 13 operated by cnes, three mod satellites and seven satellites. the cnes center is connected to the cosmos operational center to exchange classified data information in particular cnes performed the maintenance of a french data base using measurements in a secure and classified room around 3,000 orbits determinations are performed each day. as a result, cnes is about to perform a screening of nonspace grants with the data base and operate our own conjunction messages. of course we also retrieve a cdm, approximately 100 per day. the french international center is internationally recognized

for its expectations in assessment, sensitivity and analysis of dispersion to better assist of risky collision and recommendation of collision. we demonstrated skills to improve methods and accuracy for more safety in space. at the research and development level our research office located at cnes in tu use provides specificity for system strategies and algorithms to prepare for future operational use. cnes also developed expertise in space debris modeling, to investigate and consider new measures to manage the space debris population in the long-term. to date we believe there's a huge need to aelse is the impact of small satellites and bigger constellations on the future space environment. we believe that international

and regional corporation are of primary importance for outer space sustainability, subjects deserve specific attention in future, exchange of information of space objects and extreme space weather events. in terms of cooperation france has developed a longstanding cooperation with the u.s. in space situational awareness. during the last two years the french ministry of the defense and the u.s. strategic command signed two ssa agreements in which cnes is fully involved as a team. cnes signed an agreement with nasa on collision reassessment in june 2015. in europe following the decision of the european parliament and establishing tracking support framework, france concentrates most of its efforts in building decision effort with the united kingdom, germany, italy and

spain supported by the commission. i come to this participation on fresh practices for outer space sustainability addressing our national regulatory framework for ensuring the safety of space operations. the french based act adopted in june 2008 impoleses to the spacecraft a strategy of limitation. the technical regulation enters in force since march 2011 and is applicable to launch operations in orbit operations and end of life mission disposal operations. cnes has the responsibility to control spacecraft operators on behalf of the ministry of our education and research which in turn delivers the authorization to the operators. our national regulatory framework in place today allows france to actively contribute to the long-term sustainability of

outer space. distinguished participants and colleagues, in conclusion of this presentation, our efficient dual cnes/mod organization in france is an advantage to contribute and improve the security, safety and sustainability in space, that domain is too important to face the burden alone. our goal in france and in europe is to share that burden in order to improve the performance of our quality of actions. that's the reason why our main decisions are often taken and implemented in coordination with ourt pa our partners because space is a global challenge we have to overcome all together. thank you for giving me the possibility to share our french experience. [ applause ] >> good morning. it's a real pleasure and honor to be participating in this event. i'd like to thank the secure world foundation, as well as all

of the speakers who have joined us today as well as all of you in the audience, because this is a fairly significant achievement. i'd like to take a different approach, though, in terms of my remarks and what i'd like to do is put what we've achieved into kind of historical perspective and then talk a little bit about the process on the united states side. i've been involved in the outer space committee since 1980, so i was i guess around 11 years old when i started. and it's been, it's interesting to see how the committee and how it works has evolved, and the reason i mention how it works is because we've reached a stage with the long-term sustainability guidelines where this was inconceivable 20 or 30 years ago, because of the not only the nature of the topic but also the actors that were involved. now in the committee, we

developed treaties in the 1960s because there was no space law. we had to develop this from whole cloth, and there was this, victoria asked if we'll see any other new binding treaties. i don't think so, because there's not kind of the political dynamic nor the appetite to develop the binding treaties, but the five that we have has withstood kind of the test of time, and so we had these global negotiations setting the rules of the road, if you will, for space activities. but we came up, but then there were specific issues that we needed to address, and the committee showing its great flexibility decided well we'll address some of these issues with principles, not necessarily binding treaties, and so we

negotiated the remote sensing principles that were adopted in 1986 that set the stage for not only civilian remote sensing but also commercial remote sensing. what's interesting about the remote sensing principles is that it shined a number of fundamental principles if you will that most states follow through their regulatory regimes and commercial activities -- commercial entities also follow, and that is making data available on a public non-discriminatory basis, free of charge or for a cost. it meant that everybody could share in this technology, which has been hugely beneficial to the global scientific and commercial field. the second set of principles we're dealing with nuclear power

sources in space. we had a ussr nuclear powered satellite crash in canada. we didn't want to ban the use of nuclear power, but we wanted to have at least some minimum standards that those who chose to use nuclear power sources in space would follow, and again, that builds confidence in the general public and the world community that, if states were to use nuclear power, that they would at least on a voluntary basis look at these principles. and then we had the guidelines on debris mitigation, which relied heavily on work done by the space agencies and the iadc, but we were able to make these guidelines kind of universal, again, on a voluntary basis, and adopted by the general assembly. so we have that legacy, and then

the next kind of the next phase of what we've been doing in the committee is not necessarily developing new guidelines but looking at what states do to implement the treaties as well as the principles and other agreements within the committee, so we've had review of national legislation and the legal subcommittee, which looked at what states are doing to give effect to their obligations under the outer space treaties and what that does is it provides a model for other states who are contemplating, you know, their own space programs or who believe that they need some kind of national legislation to ensure that they are providing the proper supervision and authorization to their government as well as nongovernmental entities. we have this tradition of looking at different ways of

accomplishing specific issues, specific work dealing with specific issues. so for, in the case of long-term sustainability guidelines, this was really a new phase for the committee and a new paradigm in terms of how we did our work, and specifically we wanted sustainability guidelines that were universal, that were applicable to all space activities, but recognizing that the new reality, which is private activities are dominating outer space which is from my perspective is a good thing, but we could not develop these guidelines in a vacuum. we needed to have not only government experts, and we had audrey and dick baneke on the u.s. side, as well as amber charles from the state department, who formed kind of the core of our negotiating team, but it was a whole

government effort, so we had many other agencies involved in terms of providing input for these guidelines, but more importantly, we were able to get the support and active participation of experts from industry and academia to participate in these four expert groups, and the four expert groups was, again, something new to the committee, where we had co-chairs who worked on a voluntary basis, pretty much doing -- without direct u.n. support, we organized the four working groups or expert groups. they were quite active and had a real cross-section of developing countries participating as well as individual experts. on the u.s. side, not only did

we have the inner agency process, but we also were able -- we also were able to get the support from industry through organizations like secure world foundation, space foundation, aiaa, american astronautical society, the satellite industries association, and what that did was it gave us kind of a reality check on what we were trying to accomplish in the u.n. it was a confidence-building and transparency measure for domestic purposes, and it provided a, what i would say a degree of credibility at least in terms of what the u.s. was seeking to accomplish toward the long-term sustainability guidelines exercise. so i guess that, i just wanted to make sure that you all fully

appreciate the scope and nature of what we were able to accomplish with these 12 guidelines. it was not a simple u.n. exercise. it involved civil society as well as industry. and i would just conclude by saying that for me, this is a big achievement. one of the hallmarks of the president's national space policy was not only promoting international cooperation, but also promoting the safe and responsible use of outer space, and this is really these 12 guidelines are kind of cornerstone of that policy at least for our purposes. thank you. [ applause ]

>> good morning ladies and gentlemen. i'm glad to be invited to attend this workshop and my colleagues and i, we all learn more at this workshop. and now i worked at on space debris field and in this lts event i worked as the chinese delegate for work experts group b space debris, for three years, and i worked continuous to support the working group's work for lts. now i give a brief remarks of our work, chinese work on the

space debris mitigation and space debris counter measures. now hypervelocity impact of space debris is fatal to in-orbit spacecraft and the space debris could impact our human safety. population increase of space debris critically affects outer space activity long-term sustainability. now, i give on our work in china. first is space policy, china has consiste consistently articulated to maintain peaceful use of outer space and sustainable development of outer space activity, and our policy filed a white paper on china's space

activity in 2000. first point out that the issue of space debris is a challenge to space activities. the white paper of paper of 201 out that china will continue to stress its work on space debris observation and mitigation. and spacecraft protection. besides, china will develop technologies for monitoring space debris and the risk assessment. and small near-earth object observation. we'll set up a design and assessment system of space debris mitigation and help to reduce space debris left by post-space missions and

spacecraft. second aspect is about our space legislation. in july, 2015 the national security law of the people's republic of china was promulgated in article 32. it states that it persists in the peaceful exploration for the use of outer space stressing international corporation and preserving the security of space activity. now under this law china's international space law is being formulated and it will gift the draft next year. a certain aspect is about our space activity regulations. to stress management at space activity and space operations

referencing the space debris mitigation guidelines, the interim measures on space debris mitigation and spacecraft protection management in 2009 in accordance with this requirement our long match series of rocket and post-mission satellites have conducted mitigation and the other bit measures. for example, long match 2c and 2d launch vehicle implemented the preservation and the deorbiting measures and the launch three and four series implemented preservation to the final stage. such satellites implemented that

the other bit operation as required. other works above -- other work has laid a good foundation for spacecraft security design and application, space debris conjunction analysis was conducted actively in the series of missions which ensure the safety of the spacecraft flight. this measure was revised last december. names have been changed to measure space degrbris mitigati and spacecraft protection management. in this measure which further specifys the space entity responsibility and clarifys the requirements of space debris mitigation according to the complete process that designs,

develops, and manufactures launch orbit and disposal. space debris mitigation and the protection requirement was proposed. meanwhile, the measure was compatible with the other three measures such as measures for the administration of registration of space objects and the interim measures for the administration of license for civil space lounge project and the interim measures for civil satellite engineering administration, the last one which is issued this year in august. chinese national space administration promotes research and establishes space debris

mitigation and protection standard for supporting implementation of the measures. the technical standard has been adopted by some spacecraft mission missions they were applied into the process of spacecraft design lounge and in-orbit operation and post-mission disposal. the technical standard application and implementation mitigated space debris protection and reduced collision risk as well as protect space safety. and in the fifth aspect about organization establishment. as soon as they founded a new agency, a new organization it's named the space debris observation and data application center and is the director of

the general of this center. deputy director. it's funded last year. this agency is founded by chinese academy of science and technically supportive as well as managements asy to ensure satellite and conduct international cooperation on space debris and near-earth object. in the sixth aspect is about international cooperation. the chinese government positively participates in the internation international cooperation and commune asian in spaication in states. for example, organization activities and work together with other members' agency to

promote the joint observation activity to the space debris and conduct -- comparison work -- some work in space debris is environment models. and other research work. and now i give some summary on the work. >> the working group and expert group work from 2007, in next several years we will continue to stress multilateral and bilateral dialogue in a constructive manner and work with other countries and other member member states to study and exchange development practice that promotes the long-term sustainability of

outer space activity and actively promote the development of the modernization of outer space governance and the law raising the framework of the united nations. we believe that with the effort of all countries, the international community will have enough wisdom and courage to solve the common challenge faced by mankind in outer space and issue the peaceful and sustainable development of outer space activity and create efficiency and fairness. thank you. [ applause ] >> all right, so we are pressed for time. as i was sitting here, this is a very busy session, panel, we are

very crammed here. this is what a satellite in one of those orbits full of space debris must feel like, you know, they can't really move around without bumping into one another. [ laughter ] well, i'm going to use my smart phone to check for time. you guys here cannot see, and ken is really classy, he has a pocket watch. >> you can use it. >> i don't trust those things. i'm evolving. well, thank you. i would like to thank the secure world foundation and the department of station for invitation and support and i hope my participation can justify the expectation to be placed on me. i have been told i have to be brief and this is a particular challenge to a brazilian. probably more difficult than getting our guidelines approved, peter. brazilians are not known for their concision but i will do my best. let me start by saying the views

i'm about to share are from exchanges with other developing nations, is and as such my views here should not be understood as generalizations that could apply to all emerging actors but i believe that these observations are more than just educated guests and they could inform our discussion here. when we started discussing the proposals one thing we realized is that we were dealing with different degrees of understanding of what implications of the lts process were -- or are because we're still working on them. as we work together i gain some insight on some of the challenges faced by these different emerging space actors and challenges that affect their participation which i believe will also affect the implementation stage, which is something we are discussing here. one thing, for example, is that the decision in policymakers in each country, you know, they