Note to Correspondents

EXHIBIT TO HIGHLIGHT USE OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY FOR HUMAN

 

DEVELOPMENT TO OPEN ON 11 OCTOBER 2004

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs will hold an exhibition entitled “Space technology and human development”.  The exhibition will highlight the uses of space technology for refugee operations, disaster management, aviation and marine navigation, environmental monitoring, agriculture and water resources management, and many other areas of human life and development.

The exhibit, which contains scaled models of spacecraft, as well as posters, will be on display in the United Nations General Assembly Visitors’ Lobby from 11 to 22 October 2004.  The exhibit is held on the occasion of the five-year review by the General Assembly of the implementation of the recommendations made by the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III), held in Vienna in 1999.  The five-year review will be held during the plenary meeting of the General Assembly on 20 October 2004.

Under the theme “Space Benefits for Humanity in the Twenty-first Century”, UNISPACE III was convened to take advantage of new opportunities for international cooperation in space activities to address the challenges faced by humanity.  The result of UNISPACE III was the adoption of “The Space Millennium:  Vienna Declaration on Space and Human Development”.  This Declaration identified a number of actions to protect the Earth’s environment and manage its resources, ensure human security, development and welfare, promote education and scientific knowledge of space, protect the space environment, and strengthen and reposition space activities in the United Nations system.

Since the beginning of the space age, which was marked by the successful launch of “Sputnik I” in 1957, the use of space technologies and their applications have penetrated many aspects of daily life throughout the world.  Today, space technologies and their applications are widely used by governments and international organizations, including entities of the United Nations system.

Featuring space activities of a number of countries and organizations, including China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as those of five entities of the United Nations system, the exhibit shows various uses of space technology to meet everyday challenges faced both in developed and developing countries.

This exhibit is co-produced with the United Nations Department of Public Information.  For more information on the exhibit, call Jan Arnesen, tel.: (212) 963-8531 or Liza Wichmann, tel.: (212) 963-0089; or Shuhrat Sulaymanov, tel: (+43-1) 26060-4952, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs implements the decisions of the General Assembly and of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its two Subcommittees, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee.  The Office is responsible for promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, and assisting developing countries in using space science and technology.  Located in Vienna, Austria, the Office for Outer Space Affairs maintains a Web site at http://www.oosa.unvienna.org.

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