Outer

The use of space technology for disaster management, climate change and food security were among the main themes of the 51st session of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which wrapped up today in Vienna.

A United Nations flag will make a historic round trip to the international space station this coming April, the Organization’s Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) announced today.

Registering satellites and other objects launched into outer space, along with the status of the five United Nations treaties covering outer space, were among the main issues discussed during a 11-day meeting in Vienna under the auspices of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) that ended today.

A United Nations flag that accompanied China’s first manned space flight was today formally installed at the UN space exhibit in Vienna, as a symbol of the international goal of fostering purely peaceful activities in regions outside the earth’s atmosphere.

Reducing risks from space debris or near-Earth objects such as meteors, space-based disaster management through satellites, and space-based telemedicine for monitoring diseases such as bird flu or malaria figured high on the agenda of a two-week United Nations scientific meeting that has just ended.

The United Nations General Assembly this week is examining how space technology can be used to help reduce global poverty and hunger, improve public health and reach other key development goals.

Representatives from a dozen countries are set to meet with United Nations agencies later this week for talks on how to strengthen the world body’s efforts to bring civilian adaptations of space-related technology to the developing world.

Two United Nations flags were aboard China's first manned space flight, orbiting the planet 14 times, as a symbol of that country's "firm commitment to use outer space for peaceful purposes and for the betterment of all humankind," a UN spokesman said today.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today congratulated China on its first manned space mission, calling it a "step forward for all humankind."

Offering his sympathies to those affected by the tragedy which struck the United States space shuttle Colombia, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said all humankind suffered a loss in the incident.