By R Anil Kumar
Vienna, Austria/ Bengaluru, Oct 4, 2026. Right after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, UNOOSA, the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, was established and has since been monitoring developments across more than 77 successful lunar missions and other journeys while also taking a lead role in the annual World Space Week, which runs from 4 to 10 October.
What you need to know
This year’s theme, Rocket revolution, focuses on the rapid transformation of how we reach space – now expanding through commercial launch providers, reusable rockets, university teams, and other innovators.
More than 50,000 events are planned in more than 100 countries.
The week represents the world’s largest space event.
What’s the UN doing in space?
Early this year, the UN hosted four astronauts who just returned from outer space, carrying out the farthest human spaceflight in history when they travelled beyond the far side of the Moon.
The UN has been involved in space affairs for decades. The General Assembly created a committee in 1959 to govern the exploration and use of space for the benefit of all – focused around peace, security and development.
Instrumental in creating the five treaties and principles governing outer space, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) has mandated duties that include keeping pace with rapid technological advances.
Since then, space science and technology and their applications are increasingly being used to support a wide range of UN activities. At least 25 UN entities use them.
Here are some examples:
Cosmic crops: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sent seeds to the International Space Station in November 2022 to test how harsh space conditions alter plant genetics for climate resilience on Earth
Satellite tele-medicine: The World Health Organization (WHO) collaborated with UNOOSA to apply space science and satellite technology to help solve global health challenges
Space junk: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) helps to promote long-term sustainability in Earth’s orbit given the 130 million pieces of debris in circulation – from satellite fragments to abandoned spacecraft
What’s it like being in outer space?
“Like entering a dream state,” one astronaut recalled.
In 1990, 17 astronauts shared their out-of-this-world experiences in Our Planet Earth, a timeless documentary produced for the UN by Lemle Pictures, Inc. with cooperation of the Association for Space Explorers and the Canadian International Development Agency.
“It was the greatest feeling I ever had in my entire life,” said one astronaut. “Seeing the black sky and the bright sun. This is really impossible, but I saw it.”
Another said he tried clumsily manoeuvring in a state of weightlessness, finding himself awkwardly jammed against a window when he was awestruck by both the view and the magnificence of Earth.
One summed up a commonly shared feeling among the space travellers.
“I felt a love for all the inhabitants of the Earth,” he said. “I just wanted to love them all.”
World Space Week
By resolution 54/68 of 6 December 1999, the General Assembly proclaimed World Space Week, to celebrate the contributions of space science and technology to the betterment of the human condition.
World Space Week is the largest annual space event in the world. It helps build up the workforce of tomorrow by inspiring students; demonstrates visible public support for the space programme; educates the public about space activities; and fosters international cooperation in space outreach and education.
Each year a theme is selected by the World Space Week Association Board of Directors in close coordination with the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs. The theme provides broad guidance to World Space Week participants on the content of their programmes. The theme is selected to increase the impact of World Space Week on all humanity further, by using a uniform theme globally.
Rocket Revolution
For World Space Week 2026, celebrated globally from October 4 to 10, the theme is “Rocket Revolution.”
Rocket Revolution focuses on the rapid transformation of space launch. Once limited to a small number of government programs, access to space is now expanding through commercial launch providers, reusable rockets, university teams, startups, and new national space actors. This shift is changing who can reach space, how often launches happen, and what space is used for.
Background
On 4 October 1957, the launch into outer space of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, opened the way for space exploration. A decade later, on 10 October 1967, the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies entered into force.
Space science and technology and their applications are increasingly being used to support a wide range of United Nations activities. At least 25 United Nations entities and the World Bank Group routinely use space applications. They make important and sometimes essential contributions to the work of the United Nations, including in the implementation of recommendations of major world conferences and those of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III), as well as support towards sustainable development.
As a consequence, coordination, cooperation and synergy are essential for those activities to be effectively carried out by the United Nations system. The annual sessions of the Inter-Agency Meeting on Outer Space Activities are the main means of achieving that synergy.
The effectiveness of the Meeting has been further enhanced by the holding, since 2004, of an open informal session immediately after the end of the Meeting, as a means of engaging Member States, in a direct and informal setting, in important space-related developments in the United Nations system. The agenda of the Inter-Agency Meeting is reviewed at each session and adapted to current operational needs.
UN and Space
From the very beginning of the Space Age, the United Nations recognized that outer space added a new dimension to humanity’s existence. The United Nations family strives continuously to utilize the unique benefits of outer space for the betterment of all humankind.
Recognizing the common interest of humankind in outer space and seeking to answer questions on how outer space can help benefit the people of Earth, the General Assembly adopted its first resolution related to outer space, resolution 1348 (XIII) entitled “Question of the Peaceful Use of Outer Space”.
On 10 October 1967, the “Magna Carta of Space“, also known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies entered into force.
Today, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) is the United Nations office responsible for promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space. UNOOSA serves as the secretariat for the General Assembly’s only committee dealing exclusively with international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space: the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space(COPUOS).
UNOOSA is also responsible for implementing the Secretary-General’s responsibilities under international space law and maintaining the United Nations Register of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
