United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)

Bringing the Benefits of Space
to Humanity

Space tools offer solutions to numerous areas in the developmental agenda, including food security, disease monitoring, natural resource management, disaster management and tele-education. It is therefore important to the United Nations to bring these benefits of outer space to every part of the world.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) implements the decisions of the General Assembly, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its two Subcommittees: the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee. These intergovernmental fora promote international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space for social and economic development, particularly for the benefit of developing countries. Other issues on the agenda include space debris, the use of nuclear power sources in outer space, international response to the threat of asteroid impact and implementation of the legal regime in outer space.

UNOOSA carries out the United Nations Programme on Space Applications in support of Member States, in particular developing countries, to share the benefits of space science and technology and their application to achieve sustainable development. Within the framework of the Programme, the Office organizes capacity-building activities to increase awareness of space benefits and to strengthen the capacity of developing countries in space applications in areas such as natural resource management, tele-epidemiology/tele-health and climate change.

Given the inherent global nature and reach of space activities, space science and technology play an ideal role in providing solutions to global problems. In that context, the work of UNOOSA includes implementing the global platform for disaster management (UN-SPIDER), promoting the global search and rescue system (COSPASSARSAT), addressing the issues of interoperability and compatibility of global navigation satellite systems through the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG), and overseeing the global array of instruments for studying space weather and the profound impact of the Sun on the Earth.

The Office discharges the Secretary-General's responsibility under international space law, including the maintenance of the Register of Objects Launched into Outer Space, which serves as the central depository of information provided by Member States and international organizations on their satellites. As part of its advocacy role, the Office organizes workshops on space law and policy, and is developing a curriculum in space law. The Office prepares and distributes reports, studies and publications on various fields of space science and technology and their application, as well as on international space law.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs has been committed for more than half a century to bringing the benefits of space to humanity and will continue doing so in the years to come.

For information contact:

United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)

Vienna International Centre
PO Box 500, 1400 Vienna, Austria
Telephone: (+43-1) 26060-4950
Fax: (+43-1) 26060-5830
Email: oosa@unoosa.org
Website: www.unoosa.org