SWF Panel Examines Challenges and Opportunities Facing New Space Actors

Friday, May 13, 2016

On May 10, 2016, SWF held a panel discussion that brought together national and international experts to examine the challenges and opportunities facing new actors in space. The expert panel featured Mr. Jean-Michel Eid of Space Partnership International, LLC (SPI), Dr. Rich Leshner of Planet Labs, Mr. Philippe Moreels of Astroscale, and Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), and was moderated by SWF Project Manager Ms. Laura Delgado López. 

Above: Delgado  López, Eid, Leshner, Moreels, and Rajagopalan. 

The public session followed a daylong, invite-only workshop that convened experts from industry, government and academic to provide feedback on SWF's Handbook for New Actors in Space, a publication that seeks to provide new space actors with a broad overview o f the fundamental principles, laws, norms and best practices for peaceful, safe, and responsible activities in space. Key themes in the discussion included varying degrees of awareness of space sustainability-related issues among a diverse community of new space actors, and the need for sustained engagement to address legal, policy, and regulatory challenges at the national, regional, and international levels.

Event materials - including speaker biographies, presentations, and an audio recording of the session - are included in the event page.