The next strategic webinar in our popular EUROCONTROL Stakeholder Forum series will take place on 2 May 2023, where we ask:

What is the real risk posed by uncontrolled space object re-entries to aviation?

With more rockets and space objects launched in 2022 than in any previous year, resulting in a growing number of satellites (and space debris) now in low-earth orbit, this topic is becoming increasingly relevant. For while many of the rockets launching these satellites are brought back to Earth in a controlled manner, others are abandoned in orbit, and some of these do return to Earth at a later stage in uncontrolled fashion.

Every uncontrolled re-entry of a space object represents a risk to aviation safety, and even if this has been to date marginal, it needs careful consideration. This growing concern has led to the recent publication of the "Montreal Recommendations on Aviation Safety and Uncontrolled Space Object Re-entries" in March 2023, calling on States to establish requirements to avoid uncontrolled re-entries of space objects, and to recognise that the use of space by any single State has global implications, with risks potentially exported from launching States to other States.

For this webinar, we have lined up key players from the Outer Space Institute who were involved in the drafting of these recommendations, and paired them with key EUROCONTROL players in crisis management and ATM network operations.

We'll be looking at the scope and objectives of these recommendations; how from an operational standpoint advance planning, data & information sharing among all the relevant operational stakeholders is vital in order to safely accommodate the re-entry of space debris into the European aviation network; and how from a crisis management point of view, mitigation measures have been developed to help secure our skies based on lessons learned and best practices developed from past experience.

Join our expert team to discuss the topic and help build a clearer picture of the current situation, challenges and opportunities. Tune in on the day from 16:00 CEST!