🌎 “Planet Earth is unique. It is ours. And it is a gift, vibrant and full of life that we must cherish.” Paris, France, September 11, 2023 – I In Paris last week, in the margins of #WSBW2023 and together with Josef Aschbacher, Luise Clemens, Andrea Vena, Chief Science Officer David Krejci signed the Statement for a Responsible Space Sector on behalf of ENPULSION together with other leading European space companies – AstroAgency, Exolaunch, GlobeEye, Open Cosmos, NorthStar Earth & Space. This important declaration initiated by European Space Agency – ESA aims at pushing consensus on Space Sustainability efforts and responsible governance among the key stakeholders of the space sector and promoting a shared vision on the future of our industry. The fast acceleration of hardware deployment in orbit poses serious security threats to the space infrastructure that only collaborative efforts can tackle. For this reason, upping the game on sustainability standards remains one of the biggest challenges looking ahead. In this sense, the signing of this document reiterates ENPULSION´s commitment to providing adequate technical solutions to preserve the space environment’s carrying capacity and supporting international space diplomacy initiatives to protect orbital ressources. 🌌 Commenting on this initiative, David Krejci, Chief Science Officer of ENPULSION, said “every good intention needs a solid technical backbone. We all agree that there is an urgent need to design ´rules for the road´ to fit all satellites. Part of this needs to be a consensus in multi-stakeholder initiatives to build a common understanding of what is really needed to control orbits responsively and to efficiently prevent collision in orbit, as well as what this means in terms of spacecraft capabilities, before, during and after operational mission stages.“ 🌱 Q&A Key actors of the European Space sector officially commit to join their forces and engage increasing concrete actions for a more responsible space sector and a sustainable development of society. o What does ‘responsible space sector’ mean? 👉 The recent pandemic period revealed, in a way, that Europe may not have all it needs to tackle global challenges. In this respect, the pandemic can be seen as a lesson learned that should be applied to other pressing global challenges. Space has enormous untapped potential to help tackle future crises. On one hand, we must act now to make it an integral part of the solution and reflect on the purposes of the use of space for the maximum benefit to the society. On the other hand, it is essential to have a transparent and sustainable approach on how space missions are designed in order to reduce any negative impacts and maximise the positive ones. o  How do the signatories concretely engage for sustainability by signing the statement? 👉  Once the statement signed, the signatories are part of a community. It’s a public engagement and they are invited to contribute to the various working groups created in the frame of the statement and later apply the relevant resulting requirements, expectations and recommendations. In this perspective, signatories have already started working together and made progress on key topics such as responsible procurement, decarbonisation targets for the sector and outer space sustainability o  What are the next steps and the KPIs to monitor the effectiveness of the engagement? 👉 The participation to the working groups, the application of guidelines and transparency regarding the responsible and sustainable actions of the players are important indicators to monitor engagement. Furthermore, as far as environmental impact and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions are concerned, the signatories are aiming at setting common reduction targets and coordinating the relevant actions. o  How were the joint principles and values of the statement defined? 👉 The Statement is the result of a long process, involving ESA’s stakeholders. It started by benchmarking already published values and principles of the most important actors within the European space sector and proceeded through a continuous dialogue among the potential future signatories . o  How is this statement aligned with the vision and engagement of Europe on sustainability ? 👉 The statement has been elaborated in line with the principles from the international and European sustainability engagements such as the European Green Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The European countries and organisation engaging in the signature of the statement are also a guarantee of this alignment with the European requirements regarding sustainability. Additionally, regarding the outer space sustainability, the statement is in line with the UN Long Term Space Sustainability Goals. o  How is this statement contributing to the Paris Agreement of containing the increase of the surface temperature of the planet by 1,5°C by 2100? 👉 The signatories of the joint statement engage in acting towards a decarbonisation of the European space sector and therefore establish common targets to reduce their emissions of GHG, in line with the recommendations of the Paris agreement. #ResponsibleSpaceSector #Sustainability #Responsibility #Space #Cooperation #European #SpaceTeamEurope
