ACES Worldwide's first year as a UNCOPUOS permanent observer

In 2025, ACES Worldwide was granted permanent observer status with the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, subject to obtaining consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council within three years. The 2026 session was the alliance's first full year exercising it.

Dr. Marlène M. Losier, a member of our Board of Directors, represented ACES Worldwide before the Legal Subcommittee and delivered the alliance's statement. She was joined at the session by Global Advisory Council members Michelle Lea Desyin Slawecki Hanlon and Dr. Steven Freeland. Read the statement to the Legal Subcommittee.

Over the course of the year, ACES Worldwide submitted three written contributions that were published as official UNCOPUOS documents.

Space and Sustainability Compact Agreement Initiative

The first reported on the Space and Sustainability Compact Agreement Initiative, which connects providers of space technology with communities whose needs those systems can meet, in support of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Space2030 Agenda. The initial agreement, concluded among Numer8 Analytics, ClimaCrew and the Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change, applies satellite Earth observation data to decision-making for fishing communities in India. A second, facilitated in Nepal between Antarikchya Pratisthan Nepal and Navodaya School, pairs the development of a disaster management satellite with space education for students from marginalized communities. A trademark application for the SSCI brand has been filed in India. Read the report.

Action Team on Lunar Activities Coordination

The second drew on research for the forthcoming book Challenges of Living in Space and asked the Action Team on Lunar Activities Coordination to take up four questions: preserving heritage sites on the Moon and, in time, elsewhere; removing debris from lunar orbit; governing the extraction and use of lunar resources; and clarifying whether planets, moons, asteroids and comets should be regulated as a single category of celestial body. Read the submission.

Expert Group on Space Situational Awareness

The third argued that tracking and collision prediction, while essential, address the symptom rather than the cause. ACES Worldwide submitted that national space legislation should require operators to exercise due diligence in limiting debris before launch, throughout a satellite's operational life and at disposal. Uniform requirements may not be immediately practical for every spacefaring nation, but a small number of states adopting robust standards can draw others toward them. Read the submission.

ACES Worldwide will continue to support the work of UNCOPUOS in 2027 and to contribute to the discussions and outcomes of UNISPACE IV.