ECSECO Highlights from IAC2024 in Milan,Italy

The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2024 , the largest ever with 11,000 visitors proved to be a dynamic event for ECSECO with collaborations with various space stakeholders and three sessions organised throughout the duration of the IAC2024. With a range of activities and panel discussions, ECSECO contributed to advancing discussions on sustainable practices in space, private investment in the space sector, and recognizing innovative research in space economics.

Day 1: ECSECO/ECSL Panel on "Responsible Space for Sustainability"
ECSECO kicked off the conference in collaboration with the European Centre for Space Law (ECSL), hosting a compelling panel on responsible practices in space to ensure sustainability.
This engaging discussion brought together a distinguished panel of experts from diverse disciplines, each contributing unique insights into the urgent challenges surrounding space governance and sustainable practices. The panel featured Marianna Valente from Politecnico di Torino, Catherine Doldirina from D-Orbit, Dimitra Stefoudi from Leiden University, and Mathieu Udriot from EPFL, who collectively explored and debated critical perspectives on the future of responsible space exploration and management. Their dialogue underscored the complexities of governing space as a shared resource and highlighted innovative approaches to ensuring sustainability beyond our planet.
Their contributions highlighted how governance, international law, and technological advancements must converge to enable sustainable use of space. We where happy to welcome numerous ECSECO members to our panel, who provided for great discussion in the Q&A session of the panel.

Day 3: ECSECO Paper Award
One of the event's key moments for ECSECO came with the announcement of the ECSECO Paper Award among the papers of Session 3.3. This award recognises a valuable contribution to research on space economy, with this year's award going to Marianna Valente for her innovative work “The Future of Space Sustainability”. ECSECO celebrated her contributions, underscoring our commitment to promoting research that can shape the future of the space economy. In addition to an in-depth presentation of her paper during the session 3.3, she provided a brief overview of the content of her paper during the award ceremony at the ESA Booth.

Day 4: ECSECO/ESPI Private Investment Panel with ESPI
In partnership with the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), ECSECO organized a panel focused on private investments across continents. The panellists provided insights from various global regions providing in-depth insights into how the investment landscapes is characterized in respect to their regional expertise. The panellists included, Temidayo Oniosun from Space in Africa, Masayasu Ishida SPACETIDE, Simon Potter from BryceTech, Blaine Curcio from Orbital Gateway Consulting, João Falcão Serra from ESPI providing insights from Africa to Japan and China as well as the “West” from Europe and the US
Each panellist shared unique insights into the challenges and opportunities of investing into the regional space industry.

IAC2024 was a success for ECSECO in promoting interdisciplinary dialogue on sustainability, research, and capital investment. Through these panels and recognitions, we were able to bring together experts and our ECSECO community. We want to extend our thanks to all panellists, and members who contributed to the success of the event.