Taking sustainability into space

Things are changing in outer space: it is filling with debris, attracting private companies, and raising new technological challenges. To keep pace with this mercurial environment, EPFL's Space Center (eSpace) is changing its focus to logistics. Here, we round up the center's initiatives as World Space Week gets under way. Gone are the days when the United States and the Soviet Union competed to achieve firsts in spaceflight capability - first in space, first to the moon. That golden age cast a decades-long shadow over space exploration. But that is all changing now, not least with the arrival of new players on the scene. The EPFL Space Center (eSpace) is marking UN World Space Week, the annual October celebration that officially starts today, with a clear statement of its intent to capture the opportunities offered by this decisive turning point.