Agenda
LAC: A Region on the Rise…and in Orbit
Through its expanding satellite and launch programs, Earth observation initiatives, and participation in multilateral space forums, the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region brings distinctive capabilities to contribute to efforts to promote space sustainability, safety, and security. Additionally, there are priorities and interests that are specific to this region that need to be incorporated into global approaches to ensuring a stable, predictable space domain. Space actors in the region represent diverse institutional capacities across countries, coupled with unique needs and programs in space services and applications. This panel seeks to explore the priorities and perspectives represented in the LAC region on sustainable practices, responsible behavior in orbit, and goals for future space governance mechanisms.
Strength in Numbers: Regional Coordination for Space Security
Space data and services are crucial to everyone, so interruptions to or degradations of those services create consequences for all. Responding to those threats requires a global approach, particularly because different regions have different concerns about space stability. Speakers representing operators, policy-makers, and space data and service users from across the LAC region will discuss disruptions to space security and stability from their perspectives and explore practical steps that can be taken at the national, regional, and multilateral levels to mitigate those threats.
Misconnections and Matchmaking: Reflections on Regulatory Requirements, Design, and Burden
As countries work to build a commercial ecosystem in order to meet national space goals, attract investment for their space sectors, and support workforce development and other capacity-building objectives, they must also enact and oversee regulatory frameworks. While necessary to ensure the sustainability and safety of the space environment, these processes can sometimes feel burdensome in terms of resources expended to meet them, a lack of clarity regarding their goals, and imperfect communication about what is needed. Companies must invest significant resources into navigating a country-by-country landscape of similar but not quite the same requirements, while governments struggle to harmonize and create the right balance of regulating, protecting the space environment, and developing the space industry. This panel will examine models for addressing this issue by hearing from regional and international leaders from government and industry about how they have worked to ensure space is sustainable over the long term while also developing vibrant space sectors.
Ice, Ice, Maybe: Slicing Through Polar Governance from Space
Earth’s Poles are strategically significant and also bellwethers for how our planet’s climate is changing. Space systems are key to monitoring changes and activities in the Poles, regions historically underserved by EO systems. Strategic competition over access to an increasingly ice-less Northern Passage in the Arctic is growing, while Antarctic research stations are sometimes perceived as nations positioning themselves for resources, territory, and military advantage. Additionally, space activities uniquely affect the Poles in that space debris is accumulating at Point Nemo, which is geographically distant, but ocean currents could bring debris to the Antarctic. This panel will discuss how space infrastructure can be used to improve coverage of the Poles in order to both tamp down geopolitical rivalry over them and monitor their physical states to prevent their deterioration. It will deliberate over how national and international governance mechanisms can use space capabilities to help protect the Poles’ fragile ecosystems.
Coalitions in Orbit: A Delicate Balance
As space activity accelerates, security, sustainability, and economic growth become intertwined. Space governance and market development are now shaped by coalitions, formal alliances, regional organizations, and issue-driven partnerships. These coalitions define norms for responsible behavior in space, and also set precedent for how space is used, regulated, and preserved. This panel explores how coalition-based approaches link space security and sustainability. It will consider how actors balance national priorities with international collaboration, as well as how coalition-led initiatives can help shape global norms and support sustainability in space. The panel aims to identify practical pathways for fostering cooperation that support both long-term orbital safety and a stable, inclusive space environment.
Have Your Data and Use It: SSA Access, Capacity, and What’s at Stake
SSA frameworks and systems at both the national and international levels are evolving while simultaneously commercial and governmental capabilities are expanding. As a result, the amount of SSA information available to space operators is skyrocketing. The need for effective use of SSA information is critical to operational safety in an increasingly complex space environment. But information availability is not the same as access, and access alone is not the same as having the capacity to act. In this context, space-faring countries at every stage of development and maturity are seeking to develop SSA capabilities and ensure that their space actors can access and use the SSA information they need. Emerging and middle space nations cannot afford to wait for global SSA frameworks to mature before designing and implementing their own SSA access and capacity-building frameworks. This panel asks, what steps are necessary to ensure SSA information is effectively used by those who need it?
One Space, Many Actors: Brazil’s Institutional Approach to Space Sustainability
This panel brings together representatives from across Brazil’s space ecosystem, including civil, national security, research and industry organizations to examine how sustainability responsibilities are coordinated across civil, defense, and commercial domains. The discussion will highlight Brazil’s evolving policy toolkit, including regulatory, operational, and market-enabling instruments, and identify areas where international engagement could strengthen responsible growth in the sector. This panel is created in the wake of recent policy advances Brazil has achieved, like the passage of the 2024 Brazilian Space Law, the activation of the Alcântara Launch Center, and the creation of ALADA, and is intended to be a practical discussion regarding coordination on specific space sustainability issues.
You Can’t Have One Without the Other: Sustainability on Earth and Sustainability in Space
Countries seek to develop space capabilities for a variety of reasons, ranging from prestige to national security to socioeconomic benefit. The LAC region demonstrates how the results from these high investments objectively improve the lives of its citizens. This session will be a series of spotlight talks highlighting some of the most innovative uses of Earth observation and other data being used throughout the region. Each speaker will be invited to showcase their project/technology while also commenting on any policy challenges or innovative approaches that help bridge the gap between having data and using it effectively. They will also be invited to comment on how end users can be brought more into policy discussions on space sustainability.
Full Moon, Full Participation: Don’t Eclipse Anyone
Activities in cislunar space have been rapidly increasing, as have plans for lunar development. Much of this is led by established space-faring countries such as the United States, China, India, and Europe. These government-led programs do include partnership opportunities for other actors and countries. This rapid growth raises sustainability concerns that echo challenges experienced in low Earth orbit: congestion, interference among assets, and the absence of commonly accepted practices for lunar surface operations and traffic coordination. The development of practices to address these challenges will be critical to enabling future access to and participation in space exploration activities by actors who may not be the primary drivers of the rapid growth. This panel will ask: How can sustainable practices enable participation in space exploration? What role do emerging and new actors have in driving that conversation forward?
Location, Location, Location: How Geography, Governance, and Infrastructure Interact in Space
Countries with a geographic position along the equatorial belt offer unique advantages for space launch and tracking operations. This panel examines the region's emerging role in global space infrastructure, exploring how countries are navigating opportunities to host launch facilities, ground stations, and tracking networks, including how countries are looking to access and utilize space infrastructure on foreign territory. This panel will examine how some Latin American states, as well as other countries in similar geographic positions, negotiate partnerships with external space powers, along with which governance frameworks are (or are not) in place to manage these relationships. This will also discuss how infrastructure decisions intersect with national sovereignty, economic development, and space sustainability commitments, including impacts on other activities such as astronomy.
Space Resources and Sustainable Governance: From Innovation to International Norms
Opening spotlight talk: Current progress and scientific relations of space resources activities.
As the relevance of space resources activities continues to increase, this session will examine how resource utilization activities on the Moon, asteroids, and other celestial bodies intersect with long-term sustainability, safety, and equitable access, and how these considerations are increasingly shaping national policies and multilateral debates. Central to the spotlight will be the ongoing work of the Working Group on Legal Aspects of Space Resource Activities (WG SRA) under the Legal Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). The session will reflect on progress toward developing an initial set of recommended principles for space resource activities, grounded in the Outer Space Treaty, non-appropriation, international cooperation, sustainability, and benefit-sharing. By linking policy innovation, multilateral norm-building, and real-world practice, the discussion aims to foster informed dialogue on how space resources can be developed responsibly, inclusively, and in support of a sustainable future for space activities.
How Modeling Can Inform Policymaking for Space Sustainability
A growing body of research demonstrates that modeling can go beyond describing the orbital environment to test the effectiveness of potential policy instruments for space safety and sustainability. Integrated assessment models that couple physical orbital dynamics with economic decision-making now allow researchers to simulate how specific policy interventions might shape operator behavior and debris risk as they co-evolve over time. These spotlight talks feature findings on various policy levers and the modeling frameworks behind them, and offer insights into the possibilities for using models to guide the design of more effective policy pathways toward optimal space outcomes.
Young Professionals Mentoring Session
The Young Professionals Mentoring Session is designed to connect emerging space leaders with experienced professionals working across policy, industry, civil society, and research. For young professionals, the session offers an opportunity to build relationships, gain career insight, and engage directly with leaders shaping the future of space sustainability. For mentors and industry leaders, it is a chance to support rising talent, share practical guidance, and help cultivate the next generation of professionals who will carry forward sustainable space policies and practices.