Information regarding this year's programs and people of Secure World Foundation reveals an action-oriented agenda for 2009. Foremost is ensuring space security while maintaining the peaceful uses of outer space and helping to shape the secure and sustainable use of space for the benefit of Earth and all its peoples. Credit right: Bigelow Aerospace. Nations around the globe make use of outer space for a myriad of purposes. 2009 is a key year in shaping the secure and sustainable use of space for the benefit of Earth and all its peoples.

In 2009, Secure World Foundation (SWF) is participating as a Permanent Observer in the forty-sixth session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS). This key meeting is being held from February 9-20 at the United Nations Office in Vienna, Austria. SWF will also take part in the June 2009 meeting of the full UNCOPUOS meeting in Vienna.

SWF will sharpen its focus on planetary defense and the international policies needed to respond to the threat from near Earth objects (NEOs), spearheading major gatherings of experts at special conferences in Nebraska and in Granada, Spain. Credit left: SpaceWorks. As one of its action items for 2009, Secure World Foundation will sharpen its focus on planetary defense and the international policies needed to respond to the threat from near Earth objects (NEOs), spearheading major gatherings of experts at special conferences in Nebraska and in Granada, Spain.

In addition, Secure World Foundation is taking active roles in space policy, space deterrence and space situational awareness, which is a move toward space traffic management in order to improve the productive use of outer space for all nations. SWF’s global outreach also involves efforts focused on Latin America, Africa and Asia.

In addition, SWF is taking a leadership role in a space security session at the 60th International Astronautical Congress to take place October 12-16 in Daejeon, South Korea.

SWF Technical Consultant Brian Weeden and Ben Baseley-Walker, SWF Legal and Policy Consultant, recently detailed the organization’s plans for 2009, as well as discussed issues from space weaponization to space traffic management and the growing problem of orbital debris. Weeden and Baseley-Walker took part in a special edition of the popular, Internet Radio-based The Space Show, hosted by Dr. David Livingston that aired on January 26, 2009. That broadcast can be heard via this link. There is a new approach to space security that was addressed by Dr. Ray Williamson, SWF Executive Director as he reviewed 2008. Dr. Williamson highlighted a number of SWF accomplishments, actions that the organization is building upon throughout this year, which included:

• Attaining Permanent observer status with the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), which will enable SWF to assist the member states in carrying out the COPUOS agenda.
• Developing key relationships in China and working with Latin American officials on space policy development.
• Gaining admittance to UN COPUOS Action Team 14 (Working Group on Near Earth Objects), which focuses on finding viable solutions to planetary defense.
• Establishing a Space Security Committee in International Astronautical Federation, which will help bring these issues to the fore in this important international institution.
• Partnering with the Vienna-based European Space Policy Institute on a highly successful conference on the Fair and Sustainable Use of Outer Space, November 2008.

“We are very hopeful that the Obama Administration will live up to its intention to take a new approach to space security, one that includes strong efforts on the diplomatic front,” said Dr. Williamson.

Secure World Foundation is a private operating foundation dedicated to the secure and sustainable use of space for the benefit of Earth and all its peoples. SWF engages with academics, policy makers, scientists and advocates in the space and international affairs communities to support steps that strengthen global space security. It promotes the development of cooperative and effective use of space for the protection of Earth’s environment and human security. The Foundation acts as a research body, convener and facilitator to advocate for key space security and other space related topics and to examine their influence on governance and international development.