Thank You Mr. Chairman. We would like to start with sincerely congratulating you on being elected Chairman of COPUOS for the next two years. We have already had an opportunity to benefit from your strong support for global youth space activities and especially those in Latin America. We are very much looking forward to furthering this relationship and working with you over the coming sessions.
Space Generation has experienced many positive changes during the last few months. In March the organization elected a new co-Chairman, Mr. Ben Baseley-Walker of the United Kingdom who will serve for the next two years. In May we appointed two co-Executive Secretaries for a two year term; Ms. Andrea Boyd of Australia and Mr. Kevin Schillo of the United States. In addition we elected a new Regional Coordinator for Africa Mr. Michael Kio of Nigeria and a Regional Coordinator for Europe, Ms. Angela Whiteside of the United Kingdom. We have also once again enlarged our global representation as evidenced by our appointment of National Points of Contacts in Germany, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Yemen, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Austria, Nigeria, and Tanzania.
To coincide with this session, we this week we are pleased to our Annual Report for 2007, which can be found on our website www.spacegeneration.org. We urge you to take a look at it and at a few of the successes of Space Generation over the last year. The widely acclaimed success of the 50 Year Vision project, our project on awareness of youth in regards to space technology and our 2007 Space Generation Congress in Hyderabad, India are but a few of these.
Other events this year saw SGAC, on behalf of its members, address the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) annual conference on space security, under the theme of providing security for the Next Generation. In March 2008 SGAC announced an international youth technical paper competition to develop unique and innovative concepts for how to deflect an asteroid or comet that could impact the Earth (referred to as mitigation). Currently, SGAC is working on a study concerning the Applications of Global Satellite Navigation Systems, results of which will be presented at the United Nations-Colombia-United States of America Workshop on the Applications of Global Navigation Satellite Systems to be held in Medelin, Colombia, later this month.
Later in this session we are looking forward to a technical presentation by Ms. Johanna Catena who will present on behalf of SGAC on the topic of Space Traffic Management. In addition, our Regional Coordinator for Asia Pacific, Ms. Bijal Thakore of India, will make a technical presentation on disaster management. Many of our members have been directly or indirectly affected by the current events in Myanmar and China. Ms. Thakore’s presentation next week will convey the opinions and concerns of these members to this Committee on the topic of the use of space in disaster mitigation and over all management.
As every year, Space Generation will hold its Space Generation Congress in Glasgow in September in advance of the International Astronautical Congress. Students and young professionals attending our congress will work on various projects the results of which will be presented at the main sessions of the IAC in the appropriate technical sessions. We urge the delegations to encourage and offer support to young people in their respective countries to take advantage of the opportunities that the Space Generation Congress and the IAC offer.
Last but not least, we would like to thank Dr. Mazlan Othman and her team at the Office of Outer Space Affairs for their continuing support of Space Generation. We are privileged to be working with such a knowledgeable and dedicated individuals who offer us not only advice and guidance but also offer our members from developing countries consistent support and opportunities to attend variety of workshops and conferences worldwide. We are grateful for OOSA’s concerted efforts to support youth space activities but also we would like to express our gratitude for their inspiration to engage with and to foster a new generation of space enthusiasts, students and young professionals around the world.
Thank You Mr. Chairman.
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