Committee on Space Research (COSPAR)
After the USSR launched its first Earth Satellite in 1957 and thereby opened the space age, the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), now the International Science Council (ISC), established its Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) in 1958.
COSPAR’s objectives are to promote on an international level scientific research in space, with emphasis on the exchange of results, information and opinions, and to provide a forum, open to all scientists, for the discussion of problems that may affect scientific space research. These objectives are achieved through the organization of Scientific Assemblies, publications and other means.
COSPAR acts mainly as an entity that:
# Advises, as required, the UN and other intergovernmental organizations.
# Responsible for organizing biennial Scientific Assemblies.
# Developing new space disciplines such as life sciences or fundamental physics.
# Publish results in its journal Advances in Space Research.
# Prepares scientific and technical standards related to space research.
# Promotes, research in space.
Short history of COSPAR discussions and policy with ethics of space meaning
2017a- Kminek G., Hipkin V. and Yano H. 2017. COSPAR's Planetary Protection Policy.