The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) was established on October 3, 1958 by the International Council for Scientific Unions (ICSU) and its first chair was Hildegard Korf Kallmann-Bijl. Among COSPAR's objectives are the promotion of scientific research in space on an international level, with emphasis on the free exchange of results, information, and opinions, and providing a forum, open to all scientists, for the discussion of problems that may affect space research. These objectives are achieved through the organization of symposia, publication, and other means. COSPAR has created a number of research programmes on different topics, a few in cooperation with other scientific Unions. The long-term project COSPAR international reference atmosphere started in 1960; since then it has produced several editions of the high-atmosphere code CIRA. The code "IRI" of the URSI-COSPAR working group on the International Reference Ionosphere was first edited in 1978 and is updated annually.

General Assembly

From 1958 to 1979, the COSPAR called for the General Assembly (also called the Scientific Assembly) annually. Starting in 1980, the General Assembly is held every two years. These are conferences currently gathering around 3,000 participating space researchers from all over the world, such as Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. The assemblies are listed in the table below; as of two previous leap years, two General Assemblies were cancelled. The 41st General Assembly in Istanbul was cancelled due to the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, while the 43rd General Assembly in Sydney was also cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

General AssemblyYearPlaceCountry
58th2050TBD
57th2048
56th2046
55th2044
54th2042
53rd2040
52nd2038
51st2036
50th2034
49th2032
48th2030
47th2028DubaiUnited Arab Emirates
46th2026FlorenceItaly
45th2024BusanSouth Korea
44th2022AthensGreece
43rd2020Sydney (cancelled)Australia
42nd2018PasadenaUnited States
41st2016Istanbul (cancelled)Turkey
40th2014MoscowRussia
39th2012MysoreIndia
38th2010BremenGermany
37th2008MontrealCanada
36th2006BeijingChina
35th2004ParisFrance
34th2002HoustonUnited States
33rd2000WarsawPoland
32nd1998NagoyaJapan
31st1996BirminghamUnited Kingdom
30th1994HamburgGermany
29th1992Washington, D.C.United States
28th1990The HagueNetherlands
27th1988EspooFinland
26th1986ToulouseFrance
25th1984GrazAustria
24th1982OttawaCanada
23rd1980BudapestHungary
22nd1979BangaloreIndia
21st1978InnsbruckAustria
20th1977Tel AvivIsrael
19th1976PhiladelphiaUnited States
18th1975VarnaBulgaria
17th1974São PauloBrazil
16th1973KonstanzGermany
15th1972MadridSpain
14th1971SeattleUnited States
13th1970LeningradSoviet Union
12th1969PragueCzechoslovakia
11th1968TokyoJapan
10th1967LondonUnited Kingdom
9th1966ViennaAustria
8th1965Mar del PlataArgentina
7th1964FlorenceItaly
6th1963WarsawPoland
5th1962Washington, D.C.United States
4th1961FlorenceItaly
3rd1960NiceFrance
2nd1959The HagueNetherlands
1st1958LondonUnited Kingdom

Scientific Structure

Scientific Commissions

Scientific Commission A

Space Studies of the Earth's Surface, Meteorology and Climate

  • Task Group on GEO
  • Subcommission A1 on Atmosphere, Meteorology and Climate
  • Subcommission A2 on Ocean Dynamics, Productivity and the Cryosphere
  • Subcommission A3 on Land Processes and Morphology

Scientific Commission B

Space Studies of the Earth-Moon System, Planets, and Small Bodies of the Solar System

  • Sub-Commission B1 on Small Bodies
  • Sub-Commission B2 on International Coordination of Space Techniques for Geodesy (a joint Sub-Commission with IUGG/IAG Commission I on Reference Frames)
  • Sub-Commission B3 on The Moon
  • Sub-Commission B4 on Terrestrial Planets
  • Sub-Commission B5 on Outer Planets and Satellites
  • Sub-Commission B6/E4 on Exoplanets Detection, Characterization and Modelling

Scientific Commission C

Space Studies of the Upper Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets Including Reference Atmospheres

  • Sub-Commission C1 on The Earth's Upper Atmosphere and Ionosphere
  • Sub-Commission C2 on The Earth's Middle Atmosphere and Lower Ionosphere
  • Sub-Commission C3 on Planetary Atmospheres and Aeronomy Task Group on Reference Atmospheres of Planets and Satellites (RAPS) URSI/COSPAR Task Group on the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) COSPAR/URSI Task Group on Reference Atmospheres, including ISO WG4 (CIRA)
  • Sub-Commission C5/D4 on Theory and Observations of Active Experiments

Scientific Commission D

Space Plasmas in the Solar System, Including Planetary Magnetospheres

  • Sub-Commission D1 on The Heliosphere
  • Sub-Commission D2/E3 on The Transition from the Sun to the Heliosphere
  • Sub-Commission D3 on Magnetospheres
  • Sub-Commission C5/D4 on Theory and Observations of Active Experiments

Scientific Commission E

Research in Astrophysics from Space

  • Sub-Commission E1 on Galactic and Extragalactic Astrophysics
  • Sub-Commission E2 on The Sun as a Star
  • Sub-Commission D2/E3 on The Transition from the Sun to the Heliosphere
  • Sub-Commission B6/E4 on Exoplanets Detection, Characterization and Modelling

Scientific Commission F

Life Sciences as Related to Space

  • Sub-Commission F1 on Gravitational and Space Biology
  • Sub-Commission F2 on Radiation Environment, Biology and Health
  • Sub-Commission F3 on Astrobiology
  • Sub-Commission F4 on Natural and Artificial Ecosystems
  • Sub-Commission F5 on Gravitational Physiology in Space

Scientific Commission G

Materials Sciences in Space

Scientific Commission H

Fundamental Physics in Space

Panels

  • Technical Panel on Satellite Dynamics (PSD)
  • Panel on Technical Problems Related to Scientific Ballooning (PSB)
  • Panel on Potentially Environmentally Detrimental Activities in Space (PEDAS)
  • Panel on Radiation Belt Environment Modelling (PRBEM)
  • Panel on Space Weather (PSW)
  • Panel on Planetary Protection (PPP)
  • Panel on Capacity Building (PCB)
  • Panel on Capacity Building Fellowship Program and Alumni (PCB FP)
  • Panel on Education (PE)
  • Panel on Exploration (PEX)
  • Panel on Interstellar Research (PIR)
  • Task Group on Establishing an international Constellation of Small Satellites (TGCSS) Sub-Group on Radiation Belts (TGCSS-SGRB)
  • Panel on Social Sciences and Humanities (PSSH)
  • Panel on Innovative Solutions (PoIS)
  • Task Group on Establishing an International Geospace Systems Program (TGIGSP)

Planetary Protection Policy

Responding to concerns raised in the scientific community that spaceflight missions to the Moon and other celestial bodies might compromise their future scientific exploration, in 1958 the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) established an ad-hoc Committee on Contamination by Extraterrestrial Exploration (CETEX) to provide advice on these issues. A year later, the mandate was transferred to the newly founded Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), which as an interdisciplinary scientific committee of the ICSU (now the ) was considered to be the appropriate place to continue the work of CETEX. Since that time, COSPAR has provided an international forum to discuss such matters under the terms “planetary quarantine” and later “planetary protection”, and has formulated a COSPAR planetary protection policy with associated implementation requirements as an international standard to protect against interplanetary biological and organic contamination, and after 1967 as a guide to compliance with Article IX of the in that area ().

The COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy, and its associated requirements, is not legally binding under international law, but it is an internationally agreed standard with implementation guidelines for compliance with Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty. States Parties to the Outer Space Treaty are responsible for national space activities under Article VI of this Treaty, including the activities of governmental and non-governmental entities. It is the State that ultimately will be held responsible for wrongful acts committed by its jurisdictional subjects.

Updating the COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy, either as a response to new discoveries or based on specific requests, is a process that involves appointed members of the who represent, on the one hand, their national or international authority responsible for compliance with the United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967, and, on the other hand, COSPAR Scientific Commissions B – Space Studies of the Earth-Moon System, Planets and Small Bodies of the Solar Systems, and F - Life Sciences as Related to Space. After reaching a consensus among the involved parties, the proposed recommendation for updating the Policy is formulated by the COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection and submitted to the COSPAR Bureau for review and approval.

The new structure of the Panel and its work was described in recent publications (;).

The recently updated COSPAR Policy on Planetary Protection was published in the August 2020 issue of COSPAR's journal . It contains some updates with respect to the previously approved version () based on recommendations formulated by the Panel and approved by the COSPAR Bureau.

Member countries

As of today, the Committee on Space Research features more than 50 countries as its member countries:

See also

External links