UNOOSA June 25th – July 2 2025 COPUOS 68th session
1) Excerpt by Werner Grandl
Wednsday, June 25th 2025
10:00
Chairman (Morocco): liquidity crisis has shortened the meeting to 6 days, 104 state members now, 56 non-government organisations (including SRI)
Item 4
- Peru prevent an arms race in outer space
- Japan collisions of satellites mitigation projects, active debris removal
- Slovakia orbital debris mitigation, Ariane 6 launching with Slovakian nano-satellites
- Italy space diplomacy, space economy supported (Artemis Accords)
- Germany aligning with the EU, side event Friday 27 June, 13:00, lunar simulation event, study group on space traffic
- China International lunar Research Station ILRS on the way, international cooperation
- Russia Soyuz 5 will be launched , Soyuz-Apollo handshake in space 50 years ago
13:00 Side Event by the Chinese delegation: “One Humanity, Infinite Frontiers”
- Presentation of lunar soil samples from the far side of the Moon by CNSA (China National Space Agency)
- China is preparing a mission to the south pole region of the Moon by 2029 with robotic rovers to study the properties of regolith
15:00
- France Ariane 6 on the way, space traffic coordination, space debris
- Austria aligns itself to the EU statement, lunar activity program, legal subcommittee, Artemis Accords
- Netherlands space traffic management
Item 5 peaceful purposes of outer space use
- Russia space should be exclusively for peaceful purposes
Friday, 27th June 2025
10:00
Item 9
- Russia some statements are going beyond the agenda, maybe Russia cannot adopt the final paper
- US 2000 space technologies for use on Earth in the last 50 years, FUNGUS as a building material for Mars!
- UK SABRE Engine (Synergistic Air Breathing Rocket Engine) will be developed (for Horizontal Take Off and Landing in space transportation)
Item 10 Space and water (on Earth), climate change, climate resilience, disaster risks
- China disaster mitigation by satellite survey
- Saudi Arabia will plant millions of trees within the next decades
- UK global Earth observation system, satellite data for all
- Italy 13 and 11 SDGs are emphasized
15:00 General exchange of views
- Russia Roskosmos brings together many firms of space technology in Russia
- Canada multi-purpose robot for Moon exploration
- Moon Village Association technical presentation
Monday, 30th June 2025, 10:00
- Chairman: International Asteroid Day (Tunguska event in 1908)
Item 4 general exchange of views
- Greece no arms race in outer space, legal framework like international sea law
- Mexico use of space resources only for peaceful purposes, will strengthen UNOOSA
Item 13 ATLAC (Action Team on Lunar Activities)
- Germany COPUOS as the key organisation for peaceful use of outer space, supporting UNOOSA
Item 14 Space exploration
- Saudi Arabia Youth should be encouraged for space exploration, bio-medical research is in focus
- Luxembourg European Research Innovation Centre, sub-systems components working in lunar dust
Item 15 Space 2030 Agenda midterm review
- Austria key activities: global partnership, space for all, space for our common future
- Italy space as a driver for international cooperation, environmental monitoring, Artemis lunar program
- Norway space for ocean alliance, satellites, climate change in the Arctic
- Russia Space science and technologies for peaceful use – proposal
- SRI 3 minutes speech of Werner Grandl Enhancing UNOOSA and COPUOS
Item 16 questions on the organisation of the committees in 2026
- TCTB Mitigate the threat of possible asteroids impact on Earth
- IAF Congress Sydney, Australia, in Poland in 2027 ?
Item 4
- IAU Interference of looking in the sky by satellites
Item 5
- Russia enhancing the document
- China anti-satellite missiles are threatening China
16:30
Informal Meeting of Working Group space situational awareness
Tuesday, 1 July 2025
10:00
Item 4
- General discussion of Report on Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on its 62nd session
- Woking Group on long term sustainability in space , expert group space situational awareness
- Austria Informal Working group for nuclear power sources in outer space , next meeting 9 th June 2026
- limited to state members and to those invited by national delegates and industry.(See § 31-33)
11:00
- Informal Meeting of SRI participants (W.Grandl, M.L.Heuser, A.Sinclair) with the Russian Delegation (Russian Academy of Science), emphasizing lunar projects (lava tubes), simulated gravity and space philosophy and history
15:00
- General discussion of Report on Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on its 62nd session, each paragraph was discussed in detail and adopted;
- Space and sustainable development
- “climate related events” instead of “climate change”(!)
- spin-off benefits of space technology: current status
- space and water, water monitoring from space, monitoring of fishing vessels
- space and climate change, Earth observation
Annex: Workplan ATLAC
- 2025 Establishment of workplan
- 2026 Draft recommendations
- 2027 Finalization of recommendations
- Priority topics: international consultations mechanisms, tools for lunar missions, intersessional meetings
General Items: Vienna 2026
- 02-13 Feb 2026 Scientific and Technical Subcommittee
- 13-24 April 2026 Legal Subcommittee
- 10-19 June 2026 Peaceful use of outer space
2) Added notes by Amalie Sinclair
At the end of sessions Wed 2nd June we were approached by China representative Mr Ruihong Yang who had been requested by the Chinese delegation to act as liasion for our MOU with ILRS Deep Space Laboratory.
We did have some prior dialog with the group for establishing Island Zero feasibility study as a collaborative platform. A couple of documents had already been provided by Werner for the China delegation, so the response was very welcome.
We also learned that the comment period on Space 2030 Agenda/ mid term review have been extended till end of year. The organizers have told us that we can submit a second paper on our work for the 18thSDG and what that represents. A Conference Room Paper is feasible and could be very helpful, likely to be associated with a COPUOS side event.