Outer Space Security Conference 2025

When: Tuesday, September 9 – Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Time: 10:00 CEST
Where: Hybrid | Palais des Nations (Room VII), Geneva & Online

Secure World Foundation is pleased to once again co-organize the Outer Space Security Conference 2025 (OS25) in partnership with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). This annual event brings together government officials, technical experts, civil society representatives, commercial leaders, and academics for candid, cross-sector dialogue on the evolving challenges facing space security.

Global reliance on space-based services continues to grow, even as space becomes more crowded, contested, and complex. OS25 offers a timely platform to examine risks to space systems—including counterspace threats, dual-use ambiguity, cyber vulnerabilities, and cislunar activity—as well as the diplomatic, legal, and technical tools available to help address them.

This year’s conference will explore a wide range of topics:

• Emerging technologies and their impact on security
• Strategic unpredictability and crisis escalation risks
• The evolving role of commercial actors
• The future of multilateral arms control and the PAROS agenda
• Space security implications beyond Earth orbit

Registration is free for both in-person and online participants.

• ‍Register to attend in Geneva
• Register to attend virtually

If you have questions, please contact Victoria Samson.

Agenda

Day 1: Tuesday, September 9

Welcome Remarks

‍Robin Geiss (Director, UNIDIR)

Keynote conversation with Robin Geiss, Doreen Bogdan-Martin and Aarti Holla-Maini — Bridging vision and responsibility: Challenges and opportunities for a secure space future

In this opening conversation, the heads of UNIDIR, International Telecommunication Union and United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs will reflect on the role of multilateral institutions in shaping a secure, inclusive and sustainable future for outer space. As the space environment undergoes rapid transformation, this dialogue will explore how their respective agendas intersect to support international cooperation, strengthen governance, and safeguard the benefits of space for all.

OS25 Youth video premiere

The Outer Space Treaty states that the exploration and use of outer space shall be the province of all humankind. Reflecting this spirit, UNIDIR and its partners will present the second edition of the Outer Space Security Conference Youth Video Competition – an initiative designed to engage young voices from around the world in the conversation on space security.

Panel 1 – Fact or fiction? Exploring emerging technologies and their impact to outer space security

Innovation in space technology is accelerating, driven by both States and commercial space companies. Technical developments such as autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, quantum communication, cyber-secure architectures among others are reshaping the space environment in complex ways. This panel will explore a range of emerging space technologies to better understand how they function, their degree of development and deployment, and how they may shape the outer space environment.

• Ioana Bratu, Co-Director, Amsterdam Law and Technology Institute Vrije University Amsterdam
• Zhanna L. Malekos Smith, Senior Associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Adjunct Professor, New York University
• Laetitia Cesari, Fellow, UNIDIR
• ‍Moderator: Thomas G. Roberts, Assistant Professor of International Affairs and Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Lightning talk – OS25 Youth video competition winner

Panel II – Mapping space security: Threats to space systems and consequences for space and Earth

Threats against space systems now span a broad spectrum, ranging from placement of weapons in outer space, the development and use of kinetic and non-kinetic counterspace capabilities, acts and behaviours such as non-consensual rendezvous and proximity operations (RPOs), the ambiguity of dual-use space systems that blur civilian and military functions, threats arising from doctrines and policies and a lack of clarity and transparency in terminology, doctrines and policy disclosure. This panel will take a comprehensive view of these threats, exploring how they are emerging, the consequences they pose for both space and Earth, and the coordinated measures that stakeholders can take in response. It will also examine the broader implications of inaction, including the erosion of long-term space security and the risk of an arms race in outer space.

• Guoyu Wang, Dean, the Academy of Air, Space Policy and Law; Professor, Law School, Beijing Institute of Technology
• Beatrice Hainaut, Research Fellow, Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l’École Militaire
• Regina Peldzsus, Specialist Space Security, European External Action Services
• Rogel Mari Sese, Chair, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Ateneo de Davao University
• ‍Moderator: Sarah Erickson, Project Coordinator, Space Security and Weapons of Mass Destruction Programmes, UNIDIR

Lightning talk – OS25 Youth video competition winner

Panel III – From principles to practice: Evolving approaches to space security and PAROS in all its aspects

This panel will explore how legally binding and non-legally binding measures for space security can complement and reinforce one another as building blocks to achieve the goals of prevention of an arms race in outer space (PAROS). The panel will also consider the institutional and diplomatic chronology of PAROS and its intersection with other multilateral and national initiatives. By reflecting on diplomatic trajectories, tensions, and points of convergence, experts will be able to articulate their views for advancing PAROS in all its aspects in today’s changing space environment.

• Shen Jian, Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs, Deputy Permanent Representative of Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and Other International Organizations in Switzerland
• Clive Hughes, Head of Space Security and Advanced Threats, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office
• Claudio Leopoldino, Counsellor, Permanent Delegation of Brazil to the Conference on Disarmament
• ‍Moderator: Almudena Azcárate Ortega, Researcher, Space Security and Weapons of Mass Destruction Programmes, UNIDIR

Technology demonstration

This interactive session offers a focused deep dive into the technologies and services by technical experts. Designed to foster practical understanding, the demonstration will be followed by a brief question and answer session, providing participants with the opportunity to engage directly with the presenters on technical capabilities, use cases, and potential applications.

Presenters: ClearSpace

Moderator: Peter Martinez, Executive Director, Secure World Foundation

Day 2

Opening remarks

Izumi Nakamitsu, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs

‍Panel IV – The security of cislunar space and beyond

As countries and commercial actors accelerate plans to return to the Moon, research and development in cislunar space technologies and missions are increasing rapidly. Space security concerns are no longer limited to near Earth orbits with the growing prospects of cislunar traffic, lunar bases and space resource extraction. International discussions on the existing relevant legal aspects – particularly those relating to the miltarization and weaponization of celestial bodies, and the limitations and prohibitions thereof – are increasingly important to understand. This panel will look at how the current legal and policy framework can address these challenges and consider what lessons can be drawn from existing practices as well as explore how ongoing space security discussions could help understand specific challenges to the cislunar domain and beyond.

• Antonino Salmeri, Director, Lunar Policy Platform
• Zhao Yun, Professor, University of Hong Kong
• Martina Elia Vitoloni, Doctoral Candidate and Researcher, McGill Institute of Air and Space Law
• Louisa Handel-Mazzetti, Assistant Professor of Military Law, Dutch Defense Academy
• ‍Moderator: Victoria Samson, Chief Director, Space Security and Stability for Secure World Foundation

Lightning talk – OS25 Youth video competition winner

Starlight session – Visions from the edge: Storytelling, security and the final frontier

Science fiction has long shaped how the public imagines space – as a frontier of possibility, peril and power. This session explores how storytelling can help policymakers and the broader public bridge technical complexity and imagination. It explores whether narrative tools may offer new ways to make sense of emerging space security challenges and navigate uncertainty in a rapidly evolving domain.

Panel V – Strategic unpredictability in the space domain: Navigating intersections, escalation and restraint  

As space systems become increasingly entangled with national security architectures, concerns about strategic predictability in the space domain are gaining renewed attention. Deliberate attacks, but also misperception, operational entanglement and crisis escalation – particularly in a context where space capabilities support strategic functions – can all feed into strategic unpredictability. However, stability in space is not only about preventing uncontrolled escalation. It is also about understanding the evolution of the wider geostrategic context, including the role of space doctrines and military space plans in shaping strategic signalling and influencing perception. Accordingly, this panel will explore how stability is being affected by different factors, discuss the role of past arms control approaches and consider how new approaches could help facilitate dialogue towards building predictability, restraint, transparency and mutual understanding.     

• Laura Grego, Senior Scientist and Research Director, Global Security Program, Union of Concerned Scientists
• Sarah Erickson, Project Coordinator, Space Security and Weapons of Mass Destruction Programmes, UNIDIR
• James Black, Deputy Director, Defence and Security; European Lead, Space RAND
• Riqiang WU, Professor of International Relations, Tsinghua University
• ‍Moderator: Jessica West, Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation

Lightning talk – OS25 Youth video competition winner

Panel VI – Commercial actors and space security: Evolving challenges, roles and responsibilities

Commercial actors are integral to space operations, providing capabilities such as launch services, satellite operations, and space-based data infrastructure. Many commercially operated systems are dual-use, intermingling civilian and military services in manners that are often ambiguous and can heighten tensions, raising questions about targetability and the responsibilities of commercial actors. Certain commercial technologies also raise concerns as their capabilities could potentially be repurposed to harm other actors, thus blurring the lines of what constitutes a weapon in outer space. As outer space becomes increasingly populated with advanced technologies, commercial pursuits and diverse actors, new and complex security challenges are emerging. This panel will explore such challenges and examine how all stakeholders may pursue practical steps to strengthen cooperation in a manner that encourages innovation and promotes space security and the goals of PAROS.

• Jessie Ndaba, Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director, Astrofica Technologies
• Anirudh Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Digantara
• Melissa de Zwaart, Professor, Space Law and Governance, University of Adelaide
• Jinyuan Su, Professor, Wuhan University Institute of International Law
• ‍Moderator: Chelsea Mai, Research Assistant, Space Security and Weapons of Mass Destruction Programmes, UNIDIR

Concluding remarks

‍Robin Geiss, Director, UNIDIR

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