"SPACE PROVIDES THE REQUIRED MAGNITUDE OF PERSPECTIVE. IT UNITES US TOWARDS COMMON GOALS".

• Author: Di Pippo, Simonetta
• Position: Interview

2018 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first UNISPACE conference where 78 Member States met to discuss the vast potential of space science and technology, and its applications. Simonetta Di Pippo is Director of the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the body responsible for promoting international co-operation in the peaceful uses of outer space.

Journal of International Affairs: It may come as a surprise to many that outer space has been on the international agenda for decades. How has space changed since the UNISPACE I Conference in 1968?

Simonetta Di Pippo: Since the first UNISPACE Conference, the world has experienced a dramatic and fascinating growth of activities in outer space. On one side, we are witnessing a persistently increasing plurality in the number of actors in space, and on the other, we see space science, technology and its associated applications continuing to embed themselves into the foundations of modern society.

For example, recent research conducted by UNOOSA and the European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency shows that close to 40 percent of the targets underpinning the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) rely on the use of space science and technology. This is just one example of the broad application of space to policy making in the 21st century. It is crucial that the role of space as a driver for global sustainable development is highlighted--and ensured--across the development agenda which, besides the SDGs, includes two other landmark global agreements: the Paris Climate Accords and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030.

JIA: As the international community looks to the next 50 years of the space age what, in your opinion, are the key challenges to ensuring that humanity's most expansive global commons is safe, secure and sustainable?

SDP: Since its establishment in 1959, the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) has been the platform that Member States have used to develop and maintain the normative framework that governs outer space activities.

One of the challenges facing the international community for the next 50 years will be ensuring that this normative framework remains fit for purpose in the face of such a rapid diversification of the space sector. How the existing framework responds to emerging issues such as space debris mitigation, space traffic management, and space resource mining will be matters that...