 Right, good morning ladies and gentlemen. My name is Peter Martinez. I'm the executive director of Secure World Foundation and it is my great pleasure to welcome all of you here today, whether in person or online, to this fourth summit for space sustainability. The term space sustainability is now firmly entrenched in the lexicon of the space community but the idea that space is a shared domain that must be used rationally and equitably and that space actors need to consider the long-term impact of their actions and behaviors on the space environment itself is actually not all that old. Even as recently as 10 years ago, the notion of space sustainability as a global issue was not widely understood and the concept had to be socialized in the multilateral fora like the UN. However, there is now a general awareness that space sustainability is a problem that needs urgent attention by all space actors and the focus of the discussion has shifted from pointing out that the problem exists to discussing potential solutions. This is the origin of the SWF summit for space sustainability. We are here to talk about potential policy, regulatory, operational and technical solutions to the challenges of space sustainability. The first summit was held in Washington DC in 2019. The 2020 and 2021 summits were virtual and now we are delighted to be holding this fourth summit here in the UK together with our partners the UK Space Agency. Over the next two days you will hear the views of leading international experts who will discuss space sustainability topics from various perspectives. We are particularly excited to be holding this event here in London because the UK has for many years demonstrated a commitment to promoting actions and behaviors that support space sustainability. As the former chair of the UN corpus process that negotiated the space sustainability or LTS guidelines I recall the extremely constructive engagement of the UK delegation throughout the entire process and I'm delighted to see several corpus colleagues here in the room with us today. Since the adoption of the LTS guidelines the UK has continued to share leadership on this topic in corpus. Sustainability of space sustainability is one of what I refer to as the three S's of space activities. The other two S's are safety and security. In addition to supporting LTS in corpus the UK was the initiator of discussions in the UN that resulted in the adoption in December 2021 of UN General Assembly Resolution 76 slash 231 to establish an open-ended working group on reducing space threats through norms rules and principles of responsible behaviors. This working group began its work in May. Given the UK's prominent role in all of these processes we're therefore delighted to have partnered with the UKSA to organize this conference. As I said before we are here to discuss potential solutions and next steps to promote space sustainability. We therefore hope that our discussions here today and tomorrow will lead to tangible actions and next steps so that each successive summit will trace an arc of progress towards more safe secure and sustainable uses of outer space. In that regard I would like us to think about what might be some tangible actionable outcomes of this summit. Yesterday we held a very interesting regulator to regulator dialogue to discuss the sustainability questions raised by very large constellations. We believe it may be fruitful to continue and expand such regulator to regulator dialogues in the future. Another area where we believe that multi-stakeholder dialogues could be useful is in the sharing of expertise and challenges in the implementation of the LTS guidelines. We look forward to hearing your ideas over the next two days on other potential priority areas for tangible work that SWF could engage in or support. In closing I will note that an event of this nature is not possible without strong partners and sponsors so I would like to take this opportunity to say what a pleasure it has been for us to work with our UKSA colleagues to plan and organize this event. I also want to thank our many sponsors listed on the slide behind me for their enthusiastic and generous support of this conference. Without their support this event would not have been possible. This concludes my opening remarks. I would now like to invite my distinguished counterpart Dr Paul Bates the CEO of the UK Space Agency to come to the podium to deliver his opening remarks and welcome on behalf of the UKSA and the UK as the host country for this summit. Thank you for your kind attention. Well good morning everyone a very sincere welcome to the fourth summit for space sustainability here at the Glorious Science Museum in London. Its home to many artifacts includes the Soyuz capsule that Tim Peake launched to space from in 2015. A very warm welcome to everyone who is here in person today from around the UK and around the world despite it has to be said a little bit of travel disruption but we're not going to let that get in the way of us we're not going to let that derail us. Welcome also to those connected into the summit virtually from across the world. Now I'd like to start by acknowledging the Secure World Foundation. Peter, Crystal, Liz all the team for their hard work and vision pulling together what is an exciting jam packed two day summit. Many thanks from me and the whole of the UK Space Agency. It's a pleasure to work with you all on this event and it has been over the recent months. We're honoured to be hosting you all here in London. This is a truly important event. We're all here today because we recognize the importance of a sustainable space environment not only for ourselves but for future generations as our lives become ever more entwined with the sky above and below. Space sustainability is a multifaceted issue. It requires a variety of solutions. We must be united in the pursuit of discovering and implementing these solutions to ensure space is a safe sustainable and prosperous environment for all humankind for our people for our planet. I've spoken on similar forums about the importance of and the UK's commitment to space sustainability. The UK's national space strategy published last year highlights our ambition to become a global leader in this field. Our reputation as a world leader in space legislation and regulations, our support for UNUSA, our pursuit of national space surveillance and tracking and active debris removal programs and our investment in the European Space Agency highlight the progress that we've made so far. So what I'd like to do is talk through our efforts in a little bit more detail now. First let me talk about our plans for novel missions to either remove debris or reduce the need for new satellites. The UK Space Agency is directly investing into national and intergovernmental active debris removal missions to remove objects from Earth orbit which congest popular orbits, increase the risk of harmful collisions and threaten the services we depend on today and ever more so in the future from space. The UK Space Agency Space Surveillance and Tracking Team with support from the Office of the Chief Engineer is leading a national active debris removal mission. The agency has provided a million pound of grants to explore the feasibility of a UK-led mission to remove debris from space and support initiatives through the European Space Agency. The studies requested could pave the way to a world first mission launching in 2026 to de-orbit two or more targets from low Earth orbit. Three consortia of space companies and universities led by Astroscale, Clear Space and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited have recently concluded their mission analysis identification and feasibility studies that's phase zero and phase A. The Minister George Freeman will share next steps on the mission tomorrow and Jake Gere from the agency will add further detail during the cleaning up space panel tomorrow. These are our ambitions for a suite of national programs to grow our domestic capability and catalyze private investment but the UK will also continue to play our part in multinational and multilateral missions principally using the expertise of the European Space Agency. We're already the leading contributor to the ESA Space Safety Program through which we are supporting missions to ensure future activities are sustainable. We're closely watching ESA's plans for future in orbit service missions too to understand how they might benefit the UK and how we can best contribute. Our links with ESA are important to the UK as are our links with other allies and partner agencies just like our close coordination with the US and other allies to sponsor a UN resolution on normative behavior in space as Peter mentioned and just like the close ties UK orbiting servicing companies have with Japan, Switzerland and the US. We truly know space sustainability is a global endeavor. So secondly let me talk about space surveillance and tracking. The UK Space Agency now runs an operational space surveillance and tracking service directly dedicated to making space safer by monitoring tracking and warning of orbital hazards. Our service provides actionable warnings of collisions between satellites and debris re-entry of debris into the atmosphere and of fragmentation events. Warnings are provided to government and to industry and are made possible by our expert orbital analyst capability provided 365 days a year by NORSS which is a company based in the north of England and represented here today. Networks of worldwide sensor data from radar and optical telescopes are invaluable and of course the specialist software for analyzing data such as Aurora which we're building alongside our colleagues in the Ministry of Defence. Minister Freeman will also be making an announcement tomorrow morning linked to the UK Space Agency's collision assessment service for industry so watch out for that. Working in space is always a collaboration and space surveillance and tracking is no different. We work closely with defence colleagues in space command and the space operation centre which is also where our analysts are based and we're developing a national space operation centre and NSPOC capability jointly with the MOD. This will be a fully integrated joint civil and military provision of expert space intelligence. So I was pleased to see a report published on the opportunities for space domain awareness in the UK conducted by CGI and endorsed by UK space. The report highlighted the significant world-leading SDA experience of the UK's commercial and academic sectors. We're privileged to have a world-leading domestic capability which will continue to develop through future collaboration including with the international SDA community. The agency continues to develop a national space operations capability which will drive forward the UK's ambitions for increased space domain awareness and sustainability. As part of this we're exploring the potential of sovereign sensor capability too. The UK Space Agency works closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports, DCMS, the Department Responsible for Spectrum and OFCOM, the UK Spectrum regulator to ensure space has access to sufficient suitable spectrum. We're active with the International Telecommunications Union and International Stakeholder Groups updating the regulations to facilitate sustainable growth. Many of the innovative activities that we're taking forward to support space sustainability could not be achieved without world-leading regulation. Whilst often viewed in a negative way we increasingly hear from the sector and our international partners the regulation and legal certainty is key to managing risks in space and engendering a responsible approach to space operations. I have to confess I'm a regulator, I'm an ex-regulator and I can't underline the importance of regulation enough. Indeed the recently published UK-funded United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs report on awareness raising and capability building to the implementation of the guidelines to the long-term sustainability of outer space activities noted that quoting the legal certainty is one of the best incentives a member state can give to its sector. I think that's food for thought for governments and policy makers around the world. In the UK we take immense pride through our extensive heritage in regulation and licensing UK activities in space. We have in place world-leading legislative and regulatory framework which implements international guidelines on sustainability and best practice and it's also outcome-focused meaning that we can accommodate rapid technological innovation and enable new mission types including those under our active debris removal program. Many countries are thinking about putting in place their own space laws and my colleagues in the space agency would be happy to share information on our framework with you as we all learn together. The UK is also working actively at international level through institutions including UN COPYS and the IADC as well as bilaterally to champion sustainability. We've done this by playing a key role in supporting and developing best practice such as the agreement at COPYS on the long-term sustainability guidelines, sharing our experience with other countries and helping to develop capabilities in nations that are starting out on their journey to space. It's clear to me that only by working closely across government and with the sector regulators academia and the international community can we ensure the sustainability of the space environment for all. I'd like to thank again the Secure World Foundation for organising a workshop held yesterday with regulators from around the world to discuss approaches to licensing large constellations of satellites. It's exactly this type of initiative working alongside the established international forest such as UN COPYS that we need to build a shared understanding of both challenges and solutions to the issues that we face. We're also heavily involved with the Easter Space Safety Programme where the UK is the largest contributor having invested £80 million in 2019. It has sustainability at its core. The goal is to protect our planet, humanity and assets in space and on earth from hazards originating in space with action in the areas of space, weather, planetary defence, space debris and clean space. The programme includes some key capabilities the UK is proud to support. Vigil, that's a deep space sentinel to Lagrange Point L5 to greatly improve our ability to forecast extreme space weather. Adryos, a series of missions including the Clear Space One, Debris Removal Demonstration Mission which are the stepping stones towards a sustainable circular economy in space enabling on orbit servicing, lifetime extension, assembly and manufacture and of course Cosmic, a set of core R&D activities and small missions to develop technology towards net zero creation of debris from our activities in space. Sensors, software to better track objects in space, missions to map micro debris we can't currently even detect and to improve our understanding of safe satellite reentry at the end of mission. The Agency has also been working with European partners through the EU funded Peraspor X project to develop the European Operations Framework. This framework encompasses a handbook and series of recommendations on how best to lay the conditions for making in orbit servicing a commercially viable market. Since 2018, the UK Space Agency staff have worked with the Secure Foundation, World Foundation, to ensure alignment and complementarity between the outputs of the European framework and that of CONFERS, another industry group that we support. We'll hear more from the other speakers over the next two days including from the UK Science Minister, George Freeman, who will be making the further announcements on plans for accelerating space sustainability. Also looking forward to hearing from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales about his views at the end of today. I hope you can see from the variety of UK speakers including those at the highest level just how important space sustainability is to us. The UK Space Agency is playing its part in protecting space now and in the future but we know this isn't something to be done in isolation. We need nations, companies, academics and individuals to all take concerted action to really make a difference. That's why this summit and the broad range of people who I know are represented is so truly important. I hope over the next two days we can find ways of moving ahead together on key issues. There is a team from the agency, a phenomenal team, a great team here throughout the summit led by our Chief of Staff, Jake Gear, our Chief Engineer, Andy is also here, many other colleagues. I'll also be here on occasions as will many others from the UK Government. Please do come and speak to us to make the links that we need. Thank you for listening. Enjoy the summit.