23 May 2012

Heads of Agency Panel

The Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX) got off to a good start on Tuesday morning with the Heads of Agency Plenary Panel. Bringing together: Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General, European Space Agency; Steve MacLean, President, Canadian Space Agency; Vladimir A. Popovkin, Head of the Russian Federal Space Agency; Yuichi Yamaura, Associate Executive Director, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA); RR Navalagund, Prof. Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professor, Indian Space Research Organisation, and Robert Lighftoot, Acting Associate Administrator, NASA.

All participants expressed their sincere congratulations to SpaceX on a successful Falcon 9/Dragon launch Tuesday morning. The following discussion between the world’s space leaders, made it clear there that four themes shaping international thought on space exploration: 1) The very nature of exploration and what exploration hopes to accomplish; 2) How exploration efforts are currently imperiled by prevailing economic forces; 3) How successful exploration efforts depend on the successful integration of engineering, science, and technology, and 4) How the International Space Station (ISS) will provide much needed answers to remaining questions about the ability of humans to continue exploration efforts to Mars and beyond.

• Steve MacLean (CSA) shared his thoughts on how best communicate our space exploration mandates as a joint effort between human exploration, robotic science and earth/space based astronomy.

• Jean-Jacques Dordain (ESA) noted the importance of international cooperation and the role of ISS in strengthening the partnership to which – even though it may sometimes be difficult – there was no alternative.

• RR Navalgund (ISRO) stresses the need to harness space technologies for terrestrial benefit. He also underlined that it was essential to motivate young people.

• For Yuichi Yamaura (JAXA) the ISS is an important step in space exploration – therefore, we must be successful in using the ISS.

• Vladimir Popovkin (Roscosmos) emphasizes his desire to participate in a joint effort to explore and find answers. It is important to get the crew to various destinations, but essential to make them productive. We need tangible, valuable results, he says. This would require to better link current programmes to future goals.

• Robert Lightfoot (NASA) says that NASA continues to make progress on its exploration priorities – Space launch System, MPCU, ISS and the James Webb Space Telescope. Stressing the importance of global partnerships, he adds, we all bring strengths to the table.

Attendees came away from the sessions with a good understanding of the benefits that international cooperation brings in the world space community, and why cooperation is the preferred model to competition. By cooperating, the world’s space-faring nations can hope to define exploration more precisely, marshal resources to overcome economic hardships, more fully integrate the various disciplines that successful exploration depends on, and more fully leverage the research and test-bed potential of the ISS.