SSPI Contributes to Student Recommendations to UN on On-Orbit Servicing

`SSPI Contributes to Student Recommendations to UN on On-Orbit Servicing`

SSPI executive director Robert Bell served as a subject matter expert at the 2014 Space Generation Congress, an annual gathering of the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) collocated with the International Aeronautical Congress. His assignment was to brief a working group on the commercial realities of the satellite industry and the emerging commercial on-orbit servicing ventures.

SGAC is a UN-chartered nonprofit, and its working groups submit recommendations to the United Nations for the development of space policy. The working group, led by SSPI scholarship alumnus Adam Vigneron, recently issued its final report. It makes a strong case for updating licensing and liability rules, and taking steps to limit the potential for the weaponization of space that will arise when robot vehicles deliberately approach satellites in orbit for servicing.