General Exchange of Views

Statement by James Higgins, United States Representative to the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
Agenda Item 3: General Exchange of Views, Scientific and Technical Sub-Committee

Madam Chair, the U.S. delegation wishes to congratulate you on your election. It has been our great pleasure to work with you in the past as Malaysia 's representative to COPUOS and in your capacity as Director for the Office for Outer Space Affairs. We are certain that under your leadership we will have a highly successful session. I would also like to express our deep appreciation to the staff of the Office for Outer Space Affairs for their superb work over the past year, and for their diligent efforts to prepare for our meetings over the coming days.

Madam Chair, I would first like to comment on the agenda for this session. We will have more detailed comments when the specific topics are considered. Once again we will continue to address a number of very important and timely topics. Of particular note, we expect to continue to make significant progress on space debris mitigation guidelines. This is of special note given the outcome of the intentional destruction of a satellite by the Government of China on January 11 th of this year. While the United States has separately expressed it concerns about this event to the Government of China, we think it is appropriate to comment about the January 11 th event in this forum due to the Subcommittees' long-standing interest in the mitigation of space debris. The U.S. has confirmed through its space tracking sensors that the January 11 th event has created hundreds of pieces of large space debris, the majority of which will remain in orbit for more than 100 years. A much larger number of smaller, but still hazardous, debris was also created.

The United States is concerned about the increased risk to human spaceflight and space infrastructure as a result of this action, a risk that is shared by all space-faring nations. As we have discussed many times in this forum, technological advances have increased the global importance of and use of space systems. The majority of nations depend on space capabilities for things like: ATMs, personal navigation, package tracking, radio services, and cell phone use. The United States and many other nations have satellites in space in conformance with international agreements that provide for their national security, foreign policy interest and economic interests. Accordingly, given the importance of space assets to the world, U.S. National Space Policy considers its and other states' space systems to be vital for national and economic security.

We note with concern the contradiction between China 's efforts within this Subcommittee, and within the IADC, related to the mitigation of space debris, and its action taken on January 11 th. The avoidance of intentional creation of long-lived space debris is one of the guidelines that we have included in the set of guidelines that will hopefully be adopted by this Subcommittee at this session. The creation of hundreds of pieces of debris through an act that could have been avoided makes it even more important that we conclude our work on the STSC space debris mitigation guidelines this year. These guidelines will not prevent the intentional creation of space debris, but they will serve to provide a clear and unambiguous set of mitigation measures that can be implemented by all space-faring nations, and they will make it clear that intentional creation of long-lived debris is not in the best interests of the world community.

Madam Chair, regarding other agenda items, we expect to continue to make progress at this session on an international safety framework for the use of nuclear power sources in outer space. Our delegation has come prepared with experts to work with other delegations to complete the current work plan and propose a way ahead.

We plan to address matters relating to remote sensing of the Earth by satellite, including applications for developing countries and the effective use of space technology for disaster mitigation, another area of significant importance this year. We will report on national and regional activities on International Heliophysical Year (IHY) 2007. We note that the Austrian Academy of Sciences will host a one-day symposium during this session on the activities that are underway for IHY. We also look forward to hearing about the accomplishments and next steps of the Subcommittee's work regarding Near Earth Objects research.

Madam Chair, during the past year, we have witnessed extraordinary international scientific and technical accomplishments in our quest to explore space. First, we congratulate India on the successful launch and recovery of its Space Capsule Recovery Experiment last month, and its steady progress in preparing for the Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission, scheduled for launch in 2008. We are pleased to note that NASA and ISRO reached agreement last year on the flight of two U.S. instruments on that mission. The joint European Space Agency (ESA)-NASA Ulysses mission reached another important milestone on November 17 on its epic out-of-ecliptic journey to start the third passage over the Sun's south pole; and thanks to ESA's Venus Express data, scientists obtained the first large-area temperature maps of the southern hemisphere of the inhospitable, lead-melting surface of Venus; additionally, the pioneering sounding radar on the joint ESA-NASA Mars Express orbiter is showing an older profile buried beneath the surface of Mars. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) continues to provide excellent data regarding tropical rainfall, and we congratulate Japan on the launch and commencement of observations of the AKARI mission, the regaining of communication with the asteroid probe "Hayabusa”, and the extraordinary new images of our sun that are being returned by the international mission satellite Hinode, or "Sunrise". We also congratulate the French national space agency (CNES)-led mission, with the European Space Agency and European partners, on the successful launch of the unique astronomy mission 'Convection Rotation and planetary Transits' (COROT). We would also like to congratulate EUMETSAT for its successful launch of the MetOp-A polar-orbiting satellite, with U.S. instruments aboard, in October 2006. MetOp-A will help provide global data for improving forecasts of severe weather, disaster mitigation and monitoring of the environment. This launch ushered in a new era of U.S.-European cooperation in environmental observing.

Finally, I would like to comment briefly about recent activities in the United States that bear significantly on our space program. In August, President Bush authorized a new National Space Policy that establishes overarching national policy that governs the conduct of U.S. space activities. It has been nearly 10 years since the U.S. National Space Policy was updated. In that time, a number of domestic and international developments have changed the opportunities, challenges, and threats facing the United States, including our space capabilities. Technology advances have without question increased the importance of and use of space globally. The new policy is needed to account for those changes and to reflect the fact that space has become an even more important component of U.S. economic, national, and homeland security. T his directive supersedes the last National Space Policy of September 1996. A fact sheet on the policy can be found at www.ostp.gov.

During 2006, the Space Shuttle's 25th anniversary year, three missions resumed construction work on the International Space Station. Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-121 mission in July 2006 was the second flight to the ISS since the Columbia accident in 2003. Astronauts proved new engineering designs and safety techniques and demonstrated that if needed the shuttle's robotic arm could serve as a platform for emergency repairs. Discovery also delivered a new crew member, increasing the ISS's crew size to three for the first time since May 2003. NASA followed up that flight with launches of STS-115 in September and STS-116 in December. The shuttle crews delivered and attached a critical piece of the station's girder-like backbone, including a new set of solar arrays to provide up to one quarter of the station's power, and reconfigured the station's power and thermal control systems. The stage is now set for an active 2007 that will see the ISS's size and research capabilities dramatically grow.

NASA also made excellent progress in moving forward to implement the U.S. Vision for Space Exploration. In August, prime contractor selection was made for the Orion crew exploration vehicle, which is to be operational by 2014. The development program for the Ares I launch vehicle that will propel the astronaut crew into space has completed its systems requirement review. Additional international conferences were carried out to enhance global understanding of the Vision for U.S. Space Exploration, to encourage international collaboration, and to exchange information on a global exploration strategy that will include both commercial and international participation for lunar science activities, lunar robotics and lunar operations, and ultimately, human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. The United States is prepared to build upon its rich history of international cooperation to achieve its goals in space exploration.

And, of course, we would like to highlight a number of U.S. exploration missions. In late October, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announced plans for a fifth space shuttle servicing mission in 2008 to the Hubble Space Telescope to extend and improve the observatory's capabilities through 2013. In 2006, the Hubble continued to make unprecedented observations that included an image of the dimmest stars ever seen in any globular cluster and the discovery of 16 extrasolar planet candidates. Despite the recent loss of its main camera, the Hubble continues to send back valuable science. NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have past their third anniversary on Mars and continue their remarkable journeys; new observations by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter have captured violent eruptions to the south polar ice cap of Mars; NASA's newest Mars spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, is revealing new details in layers of Mars's surface. As for NASA's New Horizons missions, the Stardust mission completed a 2.88 billion mile round-trip odyssey to capture and return comet and interstellar dust particles to Earth; the Cassini mission discovered two new rings around Saturn, confirmed the presence of two other moons, may have found evidence of liquid water reservoirs on Saturn's moon Enceladus, and photographed a hurricane-like storm at Saturn's south pole; and NASA's newest Horizon's spacecraft mission, Pluto New Horizons, which was launched last year, is scheduled make its closest approach to Jupiter later this month and arrive at Pluto in 2015. Closer to home, NASA launched the first satellite to provide three-dimensional images of clouds and a weather satellite to provide timely environmental information to meteorologists and the public; and lastly, it is nearing completion of the Afternoon, or “A-Train,” constellation of six satellites. NASA's Aqua and Aura satellites and CNES' PARASOL, CALIPSO and CloudSat satellite missions are flying in close proximity around Earth to gain better understanding of factors related to climate change. A sixth spacecraft, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, is planned for launch in 2008.

In May of 2006, GOES-N (now GOES-13), a geostationary satellite, was successfully launched. This is the first in a new series of geostationary satellites which feature a more stable platform enabling improved instrument performance. As part of the United States contribution to the international Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA agreed to reposition a geostationary satellite, GOES-10, over South America to provide better meteorological coverage for that region. GOES-10 reached its final destination at 60 ° W in early December 2006. The repositioning of GOES-10 is a key demonstration of the type of international effort needed to achieve the integrated Earth observation benefits envisioned by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO).

Madam Chair, as this list of achievements indicates, the international community is indeed moving forward in the exploration and use of space, and the United States looks forward to playing a key role in this continuing saga. I thank you for the opportunity to offer these opening remarks.