IAASS Press Release N° 2017/1
18 September 2017

The International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) is pleased to invite you to attend the press conference for the Space Safety Week from 16 to 20 October 2017 in Toulouse, France. The press conference will take place on
Tuesday, 17 October 2017, starting at 18:00 hours, in the ’Salle des thèses’ of the Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, 2 rue du Doyen-Gabriel-Marty, in the centre of Toulouse.

The main focus of the press conference will be on the
9th IAASS International Space Safety Conference “Know Safety, No Pain”,
             
from 18 to 20 October, at the Centre International de Conférences of Météo-France,
             
42 Avenue Gaspard Coriolis, 31057 Toulouse.

Furthermore, the press conference will address the other elements that make up the intense Space Safety Week, namely the First International Workshop on Spacecraft Environmental Anomalies and Failures, the Seventh International Workshops on Launch and Re-entry Safety, and unique professional training courses that precede the conference on 16 and 17 October. At the occasion of the press conference, the ESA/France astronaut and Novespace President Jean-François Clervoy, will also present the new IAASS book published by Elsevier, “Space Safety and Human Performance” on the safety challenges of future long-duration missions to Mars.
IAASS, the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, exists to help shape and advance an international culture of space safety, which would contribute to make space missions, vehicles, stations, extraterrestrial habitats, equipment, and payloads safer for the general public, ground personnel, crews, and flight participants. The Association also pursues the safeguarding and sustainability of the on-orbit en-vironment to allow unimpeded access to space by future generations. IAASS was legally established on 16 April 2004 in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, as a non-profit organization and, in the same year, became a member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) in Paris. In 2006, former US Senator John Glenn, first American to orbit, became the first Honorary Member of IAASS. In 2010, IAASS was granted Observer status at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Space (COPUOS) in Vienna.
The 9th IAASS Space Safety Conference is the only independent international forum entirely dedicated to space safety, where representatives from all space stakeholders, i.e. commercial, civil and military, can meet to share information and ideas on how to make spacecraft design and operations safer, and how to protect the space environment. The conference is taking place at a time when the once exclusive “club” of nations with autonomous space access capabilities is joined by many fresh and ambitious new entrants. Besides national governmental and commercial ambitions in space, international cooperation – both civil and commercial – is also gaining momentum. Even “space” itself is no longer an exclusive arena, as space bound systems and aviation traffic will share more and more a crowded airspace, while aviation will increasingly rely on space-based safety-critical services, and air launches may become an important segment of the launch business. Finally, spacecraft of various kinds and purposes are under the constant threat of collision with other spacecraft and with the ever increasing number of space debris.
In addition to the classical presentation sessions, the 9th IAASS Space Safety Conference dedicates a set of panel sessions with international experts to discuss six particular topics which need to get better attention:
– Collision risk for large on-orbit spacecraft constellations
– Habitability and human performance on Mars missions
– Safety interoperability of Moon bases
– Creation of a Space Safety Institute and commercial standards
– Air-launches and airports/spaceports safety
– International space traffic management and space governance
Keynotes speakers at the conference include Jan Woerner, Director General of the European Space Agency ESA, Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of the French Space Agency CNES, and Roberto Battiston, President of the Italian Space Agency ASI.
Members of the media are kindly invited to safe the dates for the press conference and the 9th IAASS Space Safety Conference “Know Safety, No Pain”, and to register on the media accreditation page of the conference website at http://iaassconference2017.space-safety.org to ensure that they receive accreditation for complimentary access to the conference. Further details on the conference programme, its speakers and interview opportunities for the media will be made available as the preparation of the conference progresses.
I am at your disposal for any further information and assistance.
Dieter Isakeit
Chair Information and Communication Committee
International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety
Kapteynstraat 1, 2201BB Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Tel: +31 (71) 202 00 23 – Mob: +49 (176) 42 52 86 10

Email: media@spacesafetyfoundation.org
Internet: iaass.space-safety.org