RPT - UN Office For Space Affairs Hopes UN Member States Will Create Space Debris Project Soon

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th September, 2018) The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) hopes that member states would create a new project for tackling space debris soon, Simonetta Di Pippo, the director of the organization, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"I believe that this [space debris management] is one of the biggest challenges we have, we, the space community, overall. We really hope that member states will decide to start a new solid, implementation project in this field, the sooner the better. We are ready to do this, but they have to make the decision," Di Pippo said on the sidelines of the first UN Conference on Space Law and Policy, which started in Moscow earlier in the day.

Earlier on Tuesday, Peter Stubbe, responsible for the European Space Agency's affairs at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), said at the conference that a new initiative should be undertaken to tackle the management of space debris, since there was currently no system in place for this specific task.

The conference, co-organized by the UNOOSA and the Russian government, seeks to draw the authorities' attention to developments in space law, and engage in knowledge-sharing about topical legal and policy changes in space.