G7 Backs UN Space Guidelines

G7 nations including the U.S. "welcome" U.N. guidelines for long-term sustainability of outer space activities and urged other nations to implement them, the U.K. Space Agency said Sunday. Delegates at the G7 Leaders' Summit said they "welcome all efforts ... in debris removal and on-orbit servicing activities [and] recognise the importance of developing common standards, best practices and guidelines related to sustainable space operations alongside the need for a collaborative approach for space traffic management and co-ordination." They called "on all nations to work together, through groups like the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the International Organization for Standardization and the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, to preserve the space environment."