Res Communis

Fourth IAASS Conference: Making Safety Matter – Plenary 2

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

The second plenary session of the included keynote speeches from J. Duffy, FAA, Chief Engineer, Commercial Space Transportation; S. Simpson, SAIC, Vice President, Safety and Mission Assurance; J. Pelton, ISSF, President Ad-Interim; and R. Jakhu, Professor, McGill University Institute of Air and Space Law.

The main legal content during this plenary was from Prof. Jahku who gave a report on the International Interdisciplinary Conference on Space Debris which was being hosted by both McGill University and the University of Cologne. He stated that space debris was currently the largest threat to space safety and that there was a need for globally harmonized technical standards that could be implemented through the appropriate national means. He stated that to this end the Interdisciplinary Conference was to begin the process for suggesting specific and viable policy and regulatory changes. He said that this conference resulted in the McGill-Cologne Declaration on Space Debris which will be part of the report that is released as a result of the Conference.