The Global Network on Sustainability in Space, GNOSIS, founded by and based at Warwick, supports the global scientific community to apply their knowledge to achieving sustainability in space. In the four years since the launch of GNOSIS it has grown to be a diverse global network of over 650 members from academia, the space sector and government, who work together to address the impact of debris and space weather on the rapidly growing spacecraft population.

Space sustainability leaders from across the globe, including the Chair of GNOSIS Katherine Courtney, were gathered in London on 28^th June for a series of events hosted by the UK government and King Charles III.

At a Ministerial Roundtable the UK Science Minister George Freeman sought views on what support industry needed from governments to ensure that future space exploration and exploitation remain safe and sustainable. He repeated his ambition, as set out in his keynote talk at the #GNOSIS22 Conference, to forge a collaborative cross-border community of space economies sharing common aims to keep space safe, accessible and sustainable and ambitions to drive progress on the science, technology and policy fronts. Katherine was able to make the case to the Minister that for meaningful progress to be made, there was more work needed on fundamental research to deepen our understanding of the space environment.

Also at the Roundtable, the Earth and Space Sustainability Initiative (ESSI) presented a Memorandum of Principles, signed by GNOSIS along with more than 100 other organisations, containing a set of wide-ranging high level principles that ESSI will develop into more detailed, transparent, Space Sustainability Standards over the coming months.

This was followed by a Reception at Buckingham Palace with King Charles III to mark the launch of his initiative – the Astra Carta. The event at the Palace saw the unveiling of the Astra Carta Seal and publication of the initial draft of the declaration.

The aim of this initiative is to shape a future of responsible and sustainable space exploration, development, and cooperation. The Astra Carta aims to serve as a roadmap for the global private sector to align their space-related activities with sustainability goals, approaches, and standards in partnership with governments, international organisations and other stakeholders.

The overwhelming consensus attendees took away from these events was that greater global cooperation is vital for space sustainability. There was a palpable sense that momentum is building towards that – but there remains much more work to do, and GNOSIS will play its part!