World Space Week is the annual week of celebrating achievements and contributions of Space Science, technology, and its applications. In order to educate young students and the general masses about the bounties of space technology and its applications, United Nations General Assembly has declared 4th-10th October as World Space Week.

UN General Assembly selected 4th to commemorate the launch of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, on 4th October 1957, and the signing of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, on 10th October 1967.

World Space Week Association (www.worldspaceweek.org), a non-government, non-profit international organization, coordinates this celebratory week worldwide through National Coordinators appointed in each country. In Pakistan, the event is coordinated by the country’s National Coordinator, the Secretary of National Space Agency of Pakistan, SUPARCO, through Space Education and Awareness Drive (SEAD).

The week is celebrated around the globe in more than 96 countries with 8000+ participants worldwide, organized by different space agencies, aerospace companies, schools, planetaria, museums, and astronomy clubs, all synchronized for an impactful public awareness.

Institute of Space Technology holds the legacy of celebrating World Space Week in Pakistan since 2005 in collaboration with the National Space Agency of Pakistan, SUPARCO, with the primary goal of promoting space education and awareness among the mass public.

IST cherishes the honor of organizing maximum events in Pakistan during WSW every year. The number of events, participating students and schools, has increased exponentially in the last Seventeen years. Following a predefined theme set by World Space Week Association, various space-related activities are planned for space enthusiasts.

Every year, World Space Week Association (WSWA) declares a theme to highlight a specific aspect of space. National coordinators then plan and organize events around this theme. The theme for WSW ’22 is “Space & Sustainability”. This theme will cover two main aspects: “achieving sustainability in space”, and “achieving sustainability from space”.

The theme is inspired by how sustainability in space relates to how humanity uses space, most pressingly, the orbital area surrounding Earth-itself a finite resource.

There is a much greater story to tell in terms of how space exploration and remote Earth observation can help drive change for our own home planet. This includes measuring climate change, identifying pollution on land and at sea, supporting agriculture in developing nations-an endless list. Of the 169 targets that form the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, 65 directly benefit through Earth observation satellites and related technologies. Achieving the SDGs would be so much harder without the tools and techniques available to scientists through space exploration.

Following the theme of Space & Sustainability, NCGSA aims to mitigate career options and raise space awareness among School/College students through space-related activities and competitions. With 100+ modules for students of grades 6th to 12th, participants will be able to participate in a diverse range of fun learning activities. 10 categories covering different domains are designed to include students with different interests and skills. World Space week celebrations will be a learning opportunity- especially for space enthusiasts to pursue a career in space technology.

WSW 2022 is planned in two main rounds.

1. Preliminary Round (Online) Sep 19-23, 2022
2. Final Round (IST) Oct 6-8, 2022

The World space week 2022 will hold 100+ modules in 10+ major categories.

Space Ambassadors’ Forum this year was held online via Zoom on Tuesday, September 13, 2022. View the recording to know more about it.

The purpose of the Space Ambassadors Forum is to equip focal persons/space ambassadors of respective schools, colleges & institutes participating in World Space Week 2022 with the requisite tool and guidelines necessary for registration and participation processes.