Our Objectives
- Engage with other civil society organizations to encourage the Canadian government to support policies that prevent the weaponization of space.
- Raise awareness of the challenges facing outer space security.
- Build support for a multilateral space security treaty or policy instrument as the basis of an effective regime for space activities.
Space Security Index
The Space Security Index (SSI) is currently being re-developed.
For information about the SSI and to view reports from past years please visit SpaceSecurityIndex.org.
Recent Posts on Space Security
Statement to the Open-ended Working Group on Reducing Space Threats
June 6, 2022I am here on behalf of both Project Ploughshares – a Canadian peace and arms control research institute – and the Canadian Pugwash Group, which is committed to the abolition of weapons of mass destruction and has a long tradition of “dialogue-across-divides.” Both of these organizations have long supported efforts to develop formal arms control mechanisms for outer space.
Delegates at the United Nations Have Begun Forging New Rules for Space
May 11, 2022“There’s a good display of goodwill and broad engagement. I think there’s points of consensus on what needs to be done. We need to find common understandings of how international laws apply in space,” says Jessica West, a senior researcher at the research institute Project Ploughshares based in Waterloo, Ontario, who’s attending the meeting.
Astronauts and astronomers need better space governance
March 15, 2022On November 15, 2021, seven astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) were ordered to take shelter because of the possibility of catastrophic collisions as the station passed through a cloud of debris. The astronauts remained in lifeboats while the ISS passed through the cloud multiple times.