World Space Week 2022 celebrates 'space and sustainability' this year

One of the main aims of the celebration is to educate people about how they benefit from space activities and to garner public support for space programs while fostering international cooperation.

The ‘World Space Week’ is celebrated every year between October 4 and October 10 to commemorate the launch of Sputnik-1 - earth’s first artificial satellite - on October 4, 1957 as well as to observe the signing of the historical treaty for "peaceful use of outer space", 10 years later on October 10, 1967.

Chris Boshuizen, one of the four passengers on the Blue Origins’ New Shepard in October last year - will be the spokesperson for this year's week-long celebration. (Facebook/World Space Week)

An international celebration to mark the achievements in the field of space technology since 1999, this year’s theme has been decided as ‘space and sustainability’, succeeding last year’s theme of "women in space". One of the main aims of the celebration is to educate people about how they benefit from space activities and to garner public support for space programs while fostering international cooperation.

Elaborating on this year’s theme, the World Space Week organisation which facilitates the event globally, explained that apart from mapping how space benefits our society and contributes towards sustainable development, it is also crucial to understand the challenges ahead of us to make the space environment more sustainable and safe.

Various events are organised across the world to celebrate Sputnik-1’s which paved the way for space exploration as well as to mark the success of mutual understanding between countries for peaceful use of outer space - a treaty pulled off when the world was divided into two opposite camps during the cold war era.