UN outer space agency warns ‘space race’ calls to embrace outer space for all

Anjali Sharma

GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 13th April. Head of the UN agency for outer space affairs  Aarti Holla-Maini on Friday said that  the humankind must get away from the Cold War concept of a ‘space race’, even as commercial competition up to exploit the potential of the cosmos.

UNOOSA Director Aarti Holla-Maini said that everybody has a role to play in the peaceful exploration of space – “it’s not just for the geeks and the nerds who like engineering,” on the International Day of Human Space Flight when the former Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin reached orbit back in 1961.

“Now, we’re really looking at space science and space exploration and looking for the most innovative and pragmatic approaches to that, and that is why we are seeing more commercial companies getting involved.”

She said the private sector allows national space agencies like NASA in the United States, to spread their risk, keep costs down, be bolder in their ambition and increase the chances of success.

UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is the birthplace of all space regulation and treaties, “which underpin everything that we see happening in the space economy today”, she said.

She urged a continuation of a “global convening dialogue” in both the public and private sectors.

Ms. Maini said as space debris increases in the Earth’s orbit and beyond, the UN will bring stakeholders together to discuss potential new guidelines for international oversight.