CEOS Keynote at the 2021 International Astronautical Congress

On Monday, October 25th, 2021, CEOS delivered a keynote at the 72nd International Astronautical Federation session on International Cooperation in Earth Observations. 

According to the IAF website, the International Astronautical Federation, founded in 1951, is the world’s leading space advocacy body with 407 members in 71 countries, including all leading space agencies, companies, research institutions, universities, societies, associations, institutes and museums worldwide.

Following the IAF motto “Connecting @ll Space People” and its theme “A space-faring world cooperating for the benefit of humanity”, the Federation advances knowledge about space, supporting the development and application of space assets by promoting global cooperation.

As the 2021 CEOS Chair, Dr. Karen St. Germain (NASA) delivered the Monday keynote, providing an overview of CEOS as an organization, the CEOS mission, and the ongoing activities of CEOS. She reported on CEOS’s significant contributions to the advancement of space-based Earth observation community efforts over the last year and outlined the key 2021 initiatives undertaken by NASA as the 2021 CEOS Chair, as well as those of the CEOS Strategic Implementation Chair Team (CSIRO/GA).

As the current CEOS Chair and Strategic Implementation Team Chairs reach the end of their terms the following week during the 35th annual CEOS Plenary meeting, two new Agencies will step in to continue leading and guiding CEOS activities and priorities over the next year: Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES, the French Space Agency) and the European Space Agency (ESA), respectively.