SWF Actively Participates in the 57th Session of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS)

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

SWF's Executive Director, Dr. Michael Simpson, and Senior Advisor Dr. Ray Williamson participated in the fifty-seventh session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space from 11-20 June 2014 at the United Nation Office in Vienna. 

Dr. Williamson participated in the drafting sessions of the terms of reference for the recently established Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG), which is charged with developing an international response to any future threat of collision between Earth and a near-Earth object.  Established by resolution of the UN General Assembly in December 2013, this institution, along with the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), is one of two for which SWF had been very active in the planning and development over the last decade.

Dr. Williamson also delivered a technical presentation on the results of two recent workshops designed to improve the ability of Mesoamerican agencies to employ space-based data in disaster response, planning, and mitigation.  These workshops were a part of SWF's cooperation with the Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (Spanish acronym: CRECTEALC) formalized by a memorandum of understanding between the two institutions signed last September.

To read SWF Statements, click here