VIENNA, 2 October (United Nations Information Service) — To mark World Space Week, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) is offering a series of three webinars on satellites and how they contribute to sustainable development, which are free and open for all to attend.

World Space Week is celebrated every year from 4-10 October and is sanctioned by the United Nations General Assembly to celebrate “at the international level the contributions of space science and technology to the betterment of the human condition”. The theme of this year’s World Space Week is: “Satellites improve lives”.

In line with this theme, the first webinar will feature ideas from young people all over the world, the winners of the Space4Youth competition, on how to leverage space applications for sustainable development. The second webinar will delve into how UNOOSA helps all countries access space data and applications. In the third webinar, attendees will hear from past winners and organisers of the KiboCUBE programme - a collaboration between UNOOSA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency that provides developing countries with the opportunity to deploy a satellite from the International Space Station.

More information about the webinars and the links to join them can be found here: https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/outreach/events/wsw/2020.html

UNOOSA Director Simonetta Di Pippo said: “These webinars aim to provide an accessible overview of the role of satellites for sustainable development and of our work helping countries leverage this potential. They will also allow the winners of the Space4Youth competition and of past rounds of the KiboCUBE programme to present their ideas and experiences on the global platform of World Space Week. While the current pandemic may limit physical events, we are leveraging technology to make our work more accessible and inclusive, which is in the spirit of World Space Week.”