Also this year Italy participated in the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space(COUPUOS), whose 60th session was held in Vienna from 7 to 16 June 2017.
The Italian Delegation was guided by the Permanent Representative of Italy to the International Organizations in Vienna, Amb. Maria Assunta Accili, and it included experts from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and from the Sapienza University of Rome, who actively took part both in the plenary meeting and in the sessions of the Working Group on the Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities and of the “Action Team” on Space Exploration and Innovation.
Recalling our Country’s prominent role in space activities and in research and industrial development in this field, the Italian Delegation confirmed its commitment to a sustainable and peaceful use of outer space for the benefit of humankind.
The 60th session of COUPOUS mainly focused on the preparation for UNISPACE+50 (fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Use of Outer Space), scheduled for June 2018 in Vienna.
The main objective of UNISPACE+50 is to enforce international cooperation for the peaceful use of outer space in a long-term prospective and to develop a 2030 space agenda based on the United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In this perspective, besides various other contributions to UNISPACE+50, Italy is currently working on the “Open Universe” initiative, whose aim is to make open-source space research data more accessible and to promote, among other connected benefits, the use of such data for the development of new services and new technologies also to the advantage of the individual.
