United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

In 1958, the United Nations established the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space which originally consisted of 18 members: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Sweden, the Soviet Union, the United Arab Republic, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In 1959, the United Nations permanently established the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space[5] and grew to involve 24 countries (Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lebanon, and Romania.) The main focuses of COPUOS is to promote cooperation in the peaceful use of outer space, and share information regarding outer space and its exploration.[6]

In 1962, the two COPUOS subcommittees: the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee met for the first time and continue to do so annually.[7]

COPUOS oversees the implementation of five UN treaties and agreements relating to activities in outer space: [8]

• "Outer Space Treaty" - The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies
• "Rescue Agreement" - The Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space
• "Liability Convention" - The Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects
• "Registration Convention" - The Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space
• "Moon Treaty" - The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies

COPUOS also keeps track of the following other international agreements relating to activities in outer space:[9]

General

• Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Under Water (NTB)
• Convention Relating to the Distribution of Programme–Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite (BRS)

Institutions

• Agreement relating to the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO)
• Agreement on the establishment of the International System and Organization of Space Communications (INTERSPUTNIK)
• Convention for the establishment of a European Space Agency (ESA)
• Agreement of the Arab Corporation for Space Communications (ARABSAT)
• Agreement on Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes (INTERCOSMOS)
• Convention on the International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO)
• Convention establishing the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (EUTELSAT)
• Convention for the establishment of a European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)
• International Telecommunication Constitution and Convention (ITU)

Both the former USSR and the USA engaged in an "arms race" including weapons systems functional in low-orbit altitudes; US President Ronald Reagan termed it "star wars"; this raised serious concerns. Space-based nuclear weapons tests are explicitly banned, however, several nation-states with the capacity for satellite launch are not members of the NPT, and have had a poor record on disclosure of weapons, particularly of concern is tendency toward nuclear ambiguity, and how such policy may effect the current treaty. In 2017, with the reports of "Sonic attacks" on US staff of diplomatic missions in Cuba, the ban on space-based weapons systems is again on the radar.

The Association of Space Explorers (ASE), working in conjunction with B612 Foundation members, helped obtain UN oversight of near-Earth object (NEO) tracking and deflection missions through COPUOS along with its Action Team 14 (AT-14) expert group. Several members of B612 and ASE have worked with COPUOS since 2001 to establish international involvement for both impact disaster responses, and on deflection missions to prevent impact events.[10] As explained by B612 Foundation Chair Emeritus Rusty Schweickart in 2013, "No government in the world today has explicitly assigned the responsibility for planetary protection to any of its agencies".[11]

In October 2013, the UN committee approved several measures to deal with terrestrial asteroid impacts, including the creation of an International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) to act as a clearing house for shared information on dangerous asteroids and for any future terrestrial impact events that are identified. A UN Space Missions Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG) will also coordinate joint studies of the technologies for deflection missions, and as well provide oversight of actual missions. This is due to deflection missions typically involving a progressive movement of an asteroid's predicted impact point across the surface of the Earth (and also across the territories of uninvolved countries) until the NEO has been deflected either ahead of, or behind the planet at the point their orbits intersect.[12] Schweickart states that an initial framework of international cooperation at the UN is needed to guide the policy makers of its member nations on several important NEO-related aspects.[13][14]

At about the same time (Oct 2013) of the UN's policy adoption in New York City, Schweickart and four other ASE member, including B612 head Ed Lu and strategic advisers Dumitru Prunariu and Tom Jones, participated at a public forum moderated by Neil deGrasse Tyson not far from the UN's headquarters, urging the global community to adopt further important steps towards planetary defense against the threat of NEO impacts. Their recommendations included:[10][13]

• UN delegates briefing their home countries' policymakers on the UN's newest roles,
• having each country's government create defined asteroid disaster response plans, assigning fiscal resources to deal with asteroid impacts, and delegating a lead agency to handle its disaster response in order to create clear lines of communication from the IAWN to the affected countries,
• having their governments support the ASE's and B612's efforts to identify "city-killer" NEOs capable of impacting Earth, estimated at about a million,[11] by deploying a space-based asteroid telescope, and
• committing member states to launching an international test deflection mission within 10 years.

The first meetings of IAWN and SMPAG were held in 2014.[15]

The Committee was first established by the General Assembly in its resolution 1348 (XIII) of 13 December 1958 and was originally composed of 18 members. It has grown to include 92 members as of 2019, and is subsequently one of the largest committees of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The evolution of the composition of the Committee is as follows:[16][17]

Year	Number of members	Members	Notes
1958	18	Argentina,  Australia,  Belgium,  Brazil,  Canada,  Czechoslovakia,  France,  India,  Iran,  Italy,  Japan,  Mexico,  Poland,  Sweden,  Soviet Union,  United Arab Republic,  United Kingdom,  United States	[lower-alpha 1] [lower-alpha 2] [lower-alpha 3] [lower-alpha 4]
1959	24	Albania,  Austria,  Bulgaria,  Hungary,  Lebanon,  Romania
1961	28	Chad,  Mongolia,  Morocco,  Sierra Leone
1973	37	Chile,  West Germany,  East Germany,  Indonesia,  Kenya,  Nigeria,  Pakistan,  Sudan,  Venezuela	[lower-alpha 5] [lower-alpha 6]
1977	47	Benin,  Cameroon,  Colombia,  Ecuador,  Iraq,  Netherlands,  Niger,  Philippines,  Turkey,  Yugoslavia	[lower-alpha 7]
1980	53	China,  Greece,  Spain,  Syria,  Upper Volta,  Uruguay,  Vietnam	[lower-alpha 8]
1994	61	Cuba,  Kazakhstan,  Malaysia,  Nicaragua,  Peru,  South Korea,  Senegal,  South Africa,  Ukraine
2001	64	Saudi Arabia,  Slovakia
2002	65	Algeria
2004	67	Libya,  Thailand	[lower-alpha 9]
2007	69	Bolivia,   Switzerland
2010	70	Tunisia
2011	71	Azerbaijan
2012	74	Armenia,  Costa Rica,  Jordan
2013	76	Belarus,  Ghana
2014	77	Luxembourg
2015	83	El Salvador,  Israel,  Oman,  Qatar,  Sri Lanka,  United Arab Emirates
2016	84	New Zealand
2017	87	Bahrain,  Denmark,  Norway
2018	92	Cyprus,  Ethiopia,  Finland,  Mauritius,  Paraguay
2019	95	Dominican Republic,  Rwanda,  Singapore

In addition to the Committee's Member States, a number of international organizations, including both intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, have observer status with COPUOS and its subcommittees. The following is a list of the Committee's observers, with the year they were granted that status:[18]

The following is the Bureau of the Committee for its 61st Session, which ran from 20–29 June 2018.[19]

Name	Country	Position
Rosa María del Refugio Ramírez de Arellano y Haro	Mexico	Chair
Thomas Djamaluddin	Indonesia	First Vice-Chair
Keren Shahar Ben-Ami	Israel	Second Vice-Chair and Rapporteur
Pontsho Maruping	South Africa	Chair of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee
Andrzej Miszal	Poland	Chair of the Legal Subcommittee

• List of government space agencies
• SEDS

• International Institute of Space Law
• Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space on the website of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, which serves as the secretariat for the COPUOS
• Press Release: Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Concludes 48th Session in Vienna, from June 20, 2005
• Slideshow about COPUOS and other organizations on the website of the United Nations Basic Space Science Initiative (UNBSSI)