UN News special coverage of UNISPACE+50, which celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
Progress towards more than half of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is being made thanks in part to a fleet of miniaturized satellites that have been launched into space, according to the founders of a company which takes a daily snapshot of the Earth’s surface.
The sight of Earth, from hundreds of kilometers away in open space while you are tethered only to the International Space Station, is “absolutely amazing”, said Scott Kelly, the UN Champion for Space and former US astronaut, stressing that the world we live on “is our only planet.”
On its opening day, a major United Nations forum on the peaceful uses of outer space, was issued a clear challenge to break through the so-called “glass ceiling” that prevents women and girls from achieving their full potential; especially in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
