Mr. Chairman,
The 50th session of the STSC in February this year produced fruitful result. China would like to take this opportunity to express its thanks and appreciation to the chair of the Subcommittee and the entire secretariat for their hard work.
At the meeting of the STSC, we were pleased to see the support of many states for and acceptance of the Sub-committee of the initiative proposed by the Chinese delegation on the establishment in China of a regional education center of space science and technology affiliated to the United Nations. We welcome the upcoming evaluation of Beihang University to be conducted by the evaluation team of OOSA and also welcome the interested states to actively take part in the activities of the new regional center and carry out further cooperation with China in the education and training on satellite navigation, basic space science and application and space law.
Mr. Chairman,
China attaches great importance to the work of the STSC and sees the Sub-committee as the best platform for Member States to have cooperation and dialogue on such global issues as space debris, space weather, space technology for disaster mitigation, nuclear power sources in outer space and near-earth object mitigation. At this year’s session of the STSC, important progress was made in the Working Group on Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities and fairly complete draft guidelines emerged from the expert groups. At the current session of the Committee, the expert groups are going to have final and crucial discussion on those draft guidelines. We hope that more States, particularly the developing States, would actively make comments and suggestions to enable the outcome of the Working Group on Long-Term Sustainability to represent the common interests of the most Member States. While China’s space undertakings are making continued advances, China is making continuous efforts to explore ways to avoid the negative impact of space activities on outer space environment and the technical and management methods to reduce the constraints and harm of the outer space environment on space activities. China is willing to share the practices and experience with all Member States.
In the field of space debris, China gives high priority to the control and management of space debris. By reference to the requirement of the Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines of the COPUOS and the IADC Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines, China promulgated the national standards Requirement on Space Debris Mitigation and Interim Regulations on Space Debris Mitigation, Prevention and Protection. Earmarked investment has been made in the research of technologies for monitoring, early warning and mitigation of space debris. Space debris produced by the rocket upper stages is strictly controlled and the “emission” passivation operation after rocket launch is incorporated into the whole process of mission control. In active response to the requirements of the COPUOS and the IADC on mitigation and control of space debris, post-mission off-orbit operations had been carried out on seven satellites, including Fengyun-2A, Fengyun-2B meteorological satellites and SINOSAT-2 satellite to protect the geostationary orbit resources.
In the field of space weather, China has built ground-based space weather monitoring network and national–level platform for space weather forecast and services which provides important support for aerospace launch, satellite in-orbit operations and particularly the manned aerospace activities. China has actively participated in various international cooperation organizations and mechanisms including the International Living with a Star (ILWS) and the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI) under the framework of COPUOS and initiated the international joint ground-based observation program, the International Space Weather Meridian Circle Program. China attaches great importance to capacity building in space weather in the Asia-Pacific region and held many education and training activities on space weather to promote the space weather research, modeling and forecast in the region.
At the meeting of the SCTC in February this year, in-depth discussion took place on nuclear power sources in outer space. China agrees with the prudent and serious attitudes of the Member States on this issue and is encouraged to see the active sharing of best practices and management experience among the Member States in the NPS Working Group. In the second half of this year, China is going to launch the Chang’e 3 Lunar Probe and that would be the first time for China to use nuclear power source in outer space. China will develop the relevant technologies in a steady and prudent manner by strictly following the COPUOS documents on the Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space and the Safety Framework for the Nuclear Power Source Applications in Outer Space.
Mr. Chairman,
On April 20 this year, immediately after an extremely severe earthquake hit Lushan in Sichuan Province of China, China National Space Administration activated the Charter mechanism and CSA, DLR, USGS, ISRO and JAXA made available to China satellite imagery from eight satellites, which were significantly helpful for China’s disaster relief efforts. The Chinese delegation would like to take this opportunity to express sincere gratitude to all Member States of the Charter. We are willing to bring into further play the role of China’s earth observation satellite system through such important international platforms of space-based disaster mitigation as the Charter and UN-SPIDER to enable more countries, particularly the developing countries to benefit from space technology development.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.