42nd Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC)

Published: 30 April 2024

The 42nd IADC took place in Bengaluru, India on 16-19 April 2024. 

The UK delegation consisted of representatives from the UK Space Agency, CAA and the University of Southampton, and was led by Andrew Ratcliffe (Chief Engineer, UK Space Agency). 
 

This Annual Meeting was hosted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and saw 94 delegates come together to cooperate across the following four working groups:

• WG1 – Measurements
• WG2 – Environment & Database
• WG3 – Protection
• WG4 – Mitigation

The IADC consists of 13 space agencies and brings together global experts to perform collaborative research on topics ranging from advanced spacecraft shielding to forecasting the evolution of the space environment.

Key reflections, discussions and outputs from the week:

• Space Safety and Sustainability continues to be a key priority for all the member agencies with the heads of many of the agencies, including the UK, now directly involved and championing sustainability initiatives. This is great to see and creates the environment to promote change.
• The IADC now annually releases its Report on the Status of the Space Debris Environment. This is a key publication which provides insight into the current environment, including the growth in launch traffic and compliance levels with the mitigation guidelines, but also includes forecasts on the predicted changes to the environment. All delegations re-emphasised their support for the activity and highlighted the report as a key product to inform the global community on the status and sustainability of the space environment.
• The IADC confirmed intent to update their Terms of Reference which will now include a new membership status - an Associate Member of the committee. This is part of an agreed objective by the committee to improve outreach and enable engagement with a broader set of space agencies who are developing capabilities in space debris research.

 The UK was well represented across all the working groups, helping steer the conversation and identifying new opportunities for collaborative research