United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)

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United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Bringing the benefits of space to humanity. www.unoos

02/11/2026

🇺🇳🌌 The UN General Assembly's Fourth Committee, to which the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space reports, just consensually adopted the annual omnibus resolution on "International Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space".

Among the key takeaways:

✅Admission of four new members to COPUOS: 🇧🇸 Bahamas (The), 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan, 🇷🇸 Serbia and 🇺🇬 Uganda.

✅ Endorsement of the 2026 COPUOS report and confirmation of the dates of the 2027 meeting cycle:
• Scientific and Technical Subcommittee: 16-25 February 2027
• Legal Subcommittee: 13-22 April 2027
• COPUOS: 9-17 June 2027

✅ Need to address the growing risks posed by space debris and potential collisions, including those involving space objects with nuclear power sources.

✅ Recognition of the progress made by the Action Team on Lunar Activities Consultation (ATLAC), which will continue its work through 2027.

✅ A renewed call for States to accede to the UN space treaties and for non-member States to join COPUOS. Important as 2027 marks the 70th session of COPUOS and 60th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty.

✅ Encouragement for UNOOSA to strengthen existing and new partnerships to meet rising demand for capacity-building in space science, technology, law and policy.

31/10/2026

🇵🇰🛰️ Highlights from the United Nations–Pakistan International Conference on Leveraging Space Technology for Early Warning for All (EW4All), Climate Action and Disaster Risk Assessment.

This week, experts, policymakers, researchers and representatives from space agencies and international organizations came together in Islamabad, Pakistan, for five days of discussions on how space-based information can help build a safer and more resilient future.

Jointly organized by UNOOSA, the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Comission (SUPARCO) , the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) and the Inter Islamic Network on Space Sciences & Technology (ISNET) , the conference provided an opportunity to exchange experiences, share innovative solutions and strengthen international cooperation.
Key discussions focused on:

🔹 Early warning and disaster preparedness: Using satellite information to better anticipate hazards and help communities prepare before disasters strike.

🔹 Climate action and resilience: Understanding climate-related risks and supporting better decisions on agriculture, water resources and resilient infrastructure.

🔹 Innovation and artificial intelligence: Exploring how emerging technologies can improve disaster monitoring, risk assessments and emergency response.

🔹 International cooperation: Strengthening partnerships and making space-based information and technologies more accessible to countries and communities that need them most.

Through its UN Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) programme, UNOOSA contributed expertise on disaster risk reduction, early warning systems and the responsible use of artificial intelligence, highlighting the importance of turning satellite data into practical information that supports decision-makers and communities.

In her remarks, UNOOSA Director Aarti Holla-Maini thanked the Government of Pakistan and SUPARCO, a longstanding UN-SPIDER Regional Support Office, for their continued partnership, trust and many years of joint activities. Looking ahead, she emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation to address the "last mile" challenge - ensuring that early warnings and climate resilience efforts reach every person, including those in the most remote villages and vulnerable communities.

The message from Islamabad is clear: Space technology has enormous potential to help us better understand risks, prepare for disasters and build a more resilient future. Making that potential a reality requires continued cooperation and ensuring that no one is left behind.

🤝 A big thank you to SUPARCO, all speakers, participants and partners for five days of valuable exchanges!

30/10/2026

🛰️ Space debris is a shared problem. How to move forward on a shared solution?

🇺🇳 On 29.10, in New York, the UN General Assembly’s First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) and Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) met jointly to discuss challenges to space security and sustainability. Held every two years since 2015 and organised by UN Office for Disarmament Affairs and United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, it is one of the few moments when the UN’s security and peaceful-uses perspectives on outer space meet in one room.

📣 Director Aarti Holla-Maini contributed to the joint meeting together with UNODA Director and Deputy to the High Representative, Mr. Adedeji Ebo and called for two actions:

💬 Regular dialogue across Vienna, Geneva and New York on space issues. Our dependence on space is now so profound that even a single day without satellites would severely compromise the functioning of modern society.

🌐 Global guidelines for on-orbit servicing and active debris removal that maximise transparency as a basis for trust and establish an agreed procedure for actors to follow. They could define responsible conduct and the information involved actors must share, so that States can authorise such activities with confidence.

💬 UNOOSA Director Aarti Holla-Maini said: “On-orbit servicing is a shared responsibility between industry, governments, and international organisations. […] The opportunity is to translate responsibility into practical action, so that future generations can know that the investments made in space technology today are not for nothing.”

🤝 We were glad to bring two industry experts into the room:

📈 Darren McKnight of LeoLabs showed that since 2020, the number of objects in low Earth orbit has doubled and their mass has quadrupled. Dead satellites and rocket bodies above 650 km can stay in orbit for decades or centuries, and can only be dealt with through active removal.

🛰️ Nick Shave FRAeS of Astroscale shared the practical realities of debris removal and the helpful environment enabled by the Japanese guidelines for On Orbit Servicing. Its ADRAS-J2 mission for JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), will be a world first in capturing and removing an existing large piece of orbital debris, specifically a 3.5 tonne rocket body upper stage. He called for international guidelines to support the global development of this market.

🌍 COPUOS is already addressing space traffic coordination, lunar mission coordination, dark and quiet skies and more. Debris remediation is the missing piece, and we need Member States to bring it to the Committee as a matter of urgency.

☎️ Last month, UNOOSA launched the Satellite Operator Contact Hub, a public directory of points of contact for satellite operations. Operators can participate via http://soch.unoosa.org/

23/10/2026

🛰️🇯🇴 When Diana Al-Jbour started building a satellite, she wasn’t planning on launching it into space.

She and her fellow students at Al Hussein Technical University (HTU) had the ambition and theoretical knowledge, but lacked the practical experience, technical support and resources needed to turn their ideas into reality.

With few space engineers in Jordan, they needed external assistance to achieve their dream of building Al-Rhim Sat.

Through its Access to Space for All initiative, UNOOSA provided technical training and mentorship, guiding the students through the full lifecycle of a satellite mission and helping them establish the engineering process needed to build a CubeSat. With UNOOSA’s support, the team has now grown from three students to 20 active student engineers.

🚀A major turning point came in 2025, when the team were awarded a satellite deployment opportunity through UNOOSA's partnership with Exolaunch, selected from 18 proposals submitted by teams from 16 countries.

“We are now building something that goes into space, which feels unbelievable to us,” Al-Jbour shared. “UNOOSA’s support proved that if we can visualise it, then we can do it.”

🔗 Read the full story of how UNOOSA is helping Al-Jbour's team build and launch their CubeSat, and how the project is already contributing to Jordan’s growing space sector: https://www.unoosa.org/unoosa/en/ourwork/impact/jordan.html

22/10/2026

🇲🇺🛰️When Mauritius launched their first satellite it was a moment in history.

MIR-SAT 1 was dreamed up by the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council - MRIC. But its launch was enabled by UNOOSA.

🚀 Awarded a KiboCUBE award in 2018, Mauritius designed, built and launched their cube sat with the help of experts from UNOOSA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

The opportunity was more than a technological demonstration for Mauritius. It provided the skills, experience and international connections needed to begin building a national space capability.

With UNOOSA opening partnerships across the space industry, Mauritius now hopes to build their own space collaboration amongst Small Island Developing States.

"We have such a unique visual window to look at space," Vickram Bissonauth from the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council, shared.

🌊For island nations, satellite technology offers opportunities to monitor coastlines, protect ecosystems and prepare for natural disasters. That’s why Mauritius is also focusing on sovereignty over their space data and developing space law, to protect their oceans.

Advocating for SIDS, and for their own island ecosystem, is just the start of Mauritius's journey of turning capacity-building into long-term economic growth and resilience.

"UNOOSA connected us to the right people and the right organizations and helped us leverage this new space era," Bissonauth said. "Now we can go fast and far."

🔗 Read the full story of how UNOOSA's support is helping Mauritius turn its first satellite mission into a long-term vision for its space sector: https://www.unoosa.org/unoosa/en/ourwork/impact/mauritius.html

21/10/2026

🇧🇴✈️ Most of the all-female student biotech team from Universidad Católica - UCB Santa Cruz had never been on a plane.

🚀That all changed in 2023 when they became awardees of the Hypergravity Experiment Series (HyperGES), a joint programme by UNOOSA and - European Space Agency, which funded two weeks of research in the Netherlands.

🔬 The students built an experiment to study space anaemia and the behaviour of red blood cells in hyper-gravity, creating research with wide-reaching applications for space medicine and human space flight.

For this they needed the Large Diameter Centrifuge, an eight-meter wide, four-arm centrifuge that allows researchers to simulate up to 20 times Earth’s gravity. And to access the LDC, they needed UNOOSA’s help.

The students’ passion convinced Georgina Chavez Lizarraga - an researcher and biology lecturer at the university with no previous background on the space - to help them submit their application.

"It was an opportunity that normally only comes to people in richer countries. This programme is helping so many emerging economies to start out.” Chavez shared. “Without UNOOSA our project wouldn’t have gone anywhere. The opportunity really opened the doors.”

🔗 Read full story of how UNOOSA helped this team break down doors into space careers and build Bolivia’s space capacity along the way: https://www.unoosa.org/unoosa/en/ourwork/impact/bolivia.html

20/10/2026

🇰🇭🚀Sopheak Cheang knew that before Cambodia could begin building its space programme, his country needed two things: human capacity and international cooperation.

🛰️ Less than a decade ago, a group of Institute of Technology of Cambodia students designed an early CubeSat for Cambodia. Although the satellite was ready for launch, the students were unable to secure the resources to send it into space. Without a space sector or route forward at home, these talented students moved on to studies across Europe.

So, the first challenge in Cambodia’s journey?

Calling talented students home and working with universities to build programmes that can channel the innovation of the next generation into Cambodia’s budding space sector.

But before Cambodia could develop the next generation of space leaders, it needed to lay the foundations for a national space programme. Here Cambodia found vital support in UNOOSA.

The Office provided capacity-building space law missions, first in Japan for the Asia-Pacific region, and then in Cambodia itself, to help policymakers understand the importance of space sector regulation, how to build space law, and how to make a Cambodian space program a reality.

🌐 For Cheang, one of UNOOSA’s most important contributions to Cambodia’s capacity-building journey has been connecting the country with international partners and expertise.

“We want cooperation, not competition,” he said. “We needed help connecting to other countries. UNOOSA, and COPUOS, is a place where you can connect.”

🔗 Read the full story of Cambodia's journey to becoming an emerging space actor: https://www.unoosa.org/unoosa/en/ourwork/impact/story_cambodia.html

16/10/2026

🚀On 15 and 16 October, the Vienna International Centre is hosting the second U.S. Space Forum, convened by the U.S. Mission Vienna

🌍Following the inaugural Forum in November 2025, this edition focuses on commercial space capabilities, innovation and international coordination. It brings together COPUOS delegations, diplomatic missions in Vienna, government officials, academic experts and representatives of the commercial space sector.

The programme includes discussions on space situational awareness, satellite deployment, on-orbit servicing, and activities in low Earth orbit and on the Moon.

Such exchanges matter. With more actors operating in an increasingly busy orbital environment, dialogue between governments and the private sector helps turn shared principles into responsible practice.

🙏On the margins of the Forum, at a morning coffee break hosted by Meridian International Center, announced a voluntary contribution to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) which will support our capacity building efforts in space law and safety. Director Aarti Holla-Maini welcomed the contribution, noting the importance of all stakeholders engaging with and supporting the multilateral system.

Amazon’s contribution reflects support for the important role UNOOSA plays in fostering international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space and will support the work of the Office for the benefit of all Member States.

🤝Outer space is a shared environment. Keeping it safe and sustainable is a shared responsibility. Multilateral cooperation remains the best way to ensure it benefits all humankind.

15/10/2026

🚀 Are you passionate about space law, policy and ensuring the long-term sustainability of outer space?

UNOOSA is looking for a Space Law and Sustainability Intern to join our team in Vienna! This is a great opportunity for students and recent graduates interested in gaining hands-on experience in an international environment.

⚖️ Working with our Space Sustainability Unit, you’ll support research and analysis on space law and policy, contribute to capacity-building activities and help advance international cooperation to keep outer space safe, sustainable and accessible for all.

📍 Location: Vienna, Austria (in person)
📆 Duration: 4–6 months, starting January 2027
🗓️ Apply by: 1 November 2026
👩🏽‍🎓 Eligibility: Final-year Bachelor’s students, graduate students or recent graduates in law, policy, international affairs or related fields
💼 Type: Full-time, unpaid internship

🔗 Learn more and apply: https://careers.un.org/jobSearchDescription/285723?language=en

13/10/2026

🌍 Today is the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction! Did you know that space technology helps us prepare for disasters on Earth?

🛰️ When a flood, earthquake or cyclone threatens a community, the right information at the right time can save lives. Satellite data helps countries map hazards, understand risks, strengthen early warning systems, and get a clear picture of impacts when disaster strikes. That way, when every minute matters, decisions are based on evidence, rather than guesswork.

UNOOSA's UN-SPIDER programme helps countries turn this data into action. We provide technical advice, train national institutions to use satellite data in practice, and facilitate access to satellite imagery during emergencies. This year alone, we've strengthened capacities to use satellite data for disaster risk reduction in East Africa, supported flood and landslide risk management in Kyrgyzstan, and helped advance multi-hazard risk assessments in the Philippines. We also facilitated access to more than 120 high-resolution satellite images following earthquakes in Venezuela and participated in a cyclone and oil spill emergency simulation in Mozambique.

Across these efforts, the goal is the same: turning satellite data into practical information that helps countries make informed decisions, reduce risks, and save lives.

📢 Want to learn more about how space technology strengthens disaster risk reduction? Join our new webinar series!

Together with the African Association for Geospatial Observation (AGEOS), we are launching Space for Resilience: Geospatial Intelligence for Disaster Management and Emergency Response. The first session explores how Earth observation and geospatial intelligence can help countries better understand risks before disasters strike.

📅 13 October 2026 | 14:00 Tunis time (UTC+1)
🔗 Register: https://arcg.is/0e5CC13

Adresse

Vienna International Centre, P. O. Box 500
Wien
1400

Telefon

+431260604950

Website

http://www.unoosa.org/

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