Astrium and World Space Week

The first United Nations World Space Week was held in 1999. This year, the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch and the dawning of the space age, it takes on a particular significance.

World Space Week is an annual world-wide celebration of ‘the contribution of science and technology to improving people’s lives’. It takes place every year on 4–10 October, in commemoration of the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on 4 October 1957, and the signature of the International Space Treaty on 10 October 1967. Numerous events are planned this year, organised by various agencies and associations.

Astrium, Europe's Number 1 space company, will be participating in several events, with an emphasis on fostering initiatives from the staff and sites in the company’s five ‘home nations’.

Noteworthy events scheduled to take place during the week are the award ceremony for the winners of the in-house call for ideas to help combat global warming and the launch of the Astrium ‘university challenge’. In France, Astrium will take part in the 100 Years of Space symposium in Bordeaux and the Cosmomania exhibition at the Cité de l’Espace in Toulouse. In Germany, Astrium, in collaboration with the University of Saarbrücken, is organising a ‘flying classroom in space’ for the secondary school teachers and pupils. In the United Kingdom, the company will be at the Spacebots vs. Spacemen event at the London Science Museum, where it will present the Mars exploration robot Bridget. And in Spain, Astrium is contributing to the itinerant exhibition ‘50 anos de aventura espacial. Vivir en el espacio: desafió del siglo XXI’ (‘50 years of space adventure. Living in space: the challenge of the 21st century’), which will tour various major towns and will also be featured in a special programme on the country's leading TV channel.