SUMMARY OF THE 25th MEETING OF THE SPACE MISSION PLANNING ADVISORY GROUP (SMPAG)

8-9 October 2025

Virtual Meeting

The 25th meeting of the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG) took place on 8-9 October 2025, chaired by the European Space Agency (ESA), the current SMPAG Chair (2023-2025) and supported by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) as the secretariat.

Adoption of the agenda and introduction of participants

The revised agenda was adopted. The following agencies and offices were represented at the meeting: ASI, CNES, CNSA, CSA, Czechia, DLR, ESA, FFG, JAXA, SUPARCO, and UKSA. The meeting was also attended by observers for AEE and ISRO.

The following observer organizations participated: ASE, COSPAR, and IAA. The coordinators for the SMPAG Apophis Flight Missions Working Group and the Legal Working Group also attended the meeting.

  1. SMPAG Status Report and General Items: ESA Chairmanship, Membership and SMPAG TOR

SMPAG Chair, Detlef Koschny on behalf of ESA, presented the status of SMPAG work, including report on the SMPAG actions following the real case notification by IAWN for asteroid “2024 YR4” and lessons learnt from the SMPAG hypothetical exercise conducted on the case of “2024 PDC25” for the 9th IAA Planetary Defense Conference, held in May 2025 in South Africa. SMPAG Chair further informed on the proposal for ESA’s Chairmanship of SMPAG for 2026-2027 and on the application for membership by AEE (Spain).

1.1. ESA Chairmanship 2026-2027

Richard Moissl, head of ESA delegation to SMPAG informed that ESA is willing to chair SMPAG further, for the period 2026-2027, with Detlef Koschny as the chairperson on behalf of ESA.

Decision: SMPAG unanimously agreed for ESA to continue to chair SMPAG for the next 2 years (2026-2027).

1.2. SMPAG Terms of Reference (TOR)

SMPAG discussed proposals for amending the TOR pertaining to Observer and Ad-hoc observer status; and further clarifying the composition of the SMPAG Steering Committee. The proposed text was shared in advance of the meeting with SMPAG Heads of delegations, as the Chair’s proposal. The Chair thanked the delegation of DLR and the coordinator of the SMPAG Legal WG for their inputs on this.

SMPAG Heads of delegations (i.e., the Steering Committee) who were present at the meeting were in agreement with the proposed amendments, and agreed to invite those not present for further comments, if any.

Action: SMPAG Heads of delegations are invited to provide any further comments in writing to the SMPAG Chair, with a copy to the secretariat before the 26th SMPAG meeting, when the TOR are expected to be adopted, as amended. The amended TOR are distributed with the present meeting minutes.

SMPAG documents and meeting minutes are available at http://smpag.net.

2) IAWN Status Report

In a pre-recorded presentation, the coordinator for IAWN (Kelly Fast, NASA PDCO) presented the status of its work, including lessons learnt from the first ever notification for asteroid “2024 YR4”, both nationally and internationally (through UNOOSA to UN Member States. This was the first asteroid observed to meet the minimum criteria for notification and the first time such notification was issued through UNOOSA, informing all UN Member States. The coordinator also informed on the status of asteroid observations (almost 45.000 asteroids observed, about 3.000 per year, which showcase increase in capabilities) and the growing membership of the IAWN (81 members, see https://iawn.net/about/members.shtml).

3) SMPAG Membership: The SMPAG Chair informed that the Spanish Space Agency (AEE) applied for membership with SMPAG. The Letter of Application by AEE, dated 3 June 2025, was shared with the SMPAG heads of delegations in advance of the meeting. The AEE representative, Carlos García-Sacristán, Head of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, presented AEE activities related to SMPAG work.  

Decision: The SMPAG unanimously agreed to admit AEE as SMPAG member, bringing the number of members to 20.

The member status is available at http://www.smpag.net/smpag_members. ISRO reiterated its intention to join SMPAG as member, following the completion of internal procedures.

4) SMPAG Hypothetical exercise for the 2025 IAA Planetary Defense Conference (PDC)

The SMPAG Chair presented a summary of the SMPAG hypothetical asteroid impact exercise “2024 PDC25” for the 2025 IAA PDC, the results of Epoch 1 and Epoch 2 (available at smpag.net). The Chair expressed sincere appreciation to the teams of work packages for this hypothetical exercise that ran from August 2024-May 2025. This work will be presented in a dedicated scientific paper for Advanced Astronomy.

Actions:

1. A conference room paper will be presented for the 62nd session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of COPUOS (held on 2-14 February 2026) with summary of both epochs, for information to States members of COPUOS. A series of technical presentations related to 2024 YR4 real-case scenario and lessons learnt;

2. It was agreed that SMPAG will take part in the exercise to be prepared for the 2027 IAA Planetary Defense Conference, to be held in May 2027 in Montreal, Canada, hosted by McGill University.

5) SMPAG Hypothetical Exercise, led by ASI

Camilla Colombo, on behalf of ASI and in cooperation with the Politecnico di Milano presented their contribution to the mission design for the 2025 PDC exercise and updates on the next steps for Sprint 3 of the SMPAG hypothetical exercise.

Lessons learnt and good practices: The use of mechanism for data sharing (SharePoint, provided by ESA) for such exercises is critical, other international mechanisms use similar data sharing practices. The shared data folder has proven valuable for validating multiple results submitted by delegations, using unified format templates.

Action: It was agreed the use of SharePoint will be continued. In addition, it was agreed that the SMPAG Legal WG Coordinator should be involved in these exercises from the beginning. ASI, as the lead of the SMPAG hypothetical exercise to provide a proposal for Sprint 3 biweekly/monthly meetings for Sprint 3, which will be shared with SMPAG members through secretariat.

6) SMPAG Work plan items (see also Annex I)

As a general comment, it was noted that while the workplan items remain relevant to SMPAG’s activities (see Annex I for updates), the hypothetical exercises — which incorporate the outcomes of these workplan items — now supersede them. These exercises provide SMPAG with an opportunity to harmonize its capabilities, synchronize its activities, and should be maintained as a continuous effort.

7) International Year of Asteroid Awareness and Planetary Defence 2029

SMPAG members were informed of current planning activities for the International Year – on planning for the webpage content; goals and vision document; objectives and partnerships. A dedicated UN webpage is available here.

Representatives of ASE and IAA expressed support for the Year in terms of outreach activities. ASE indicated an event could be held at the Smithsonian Institution (Natural History Museum). Representative of the IAA offered support in reaching out to their representatives (members from 96 countries). A. Haddaji, who also serves as the chair of IAF Working Group on NEOs, proposed exploring a possibility of having a special session on planetary defiance at the 2026 IAF. The first stakeholders planning meeting of focal points is planned for end June 2026, on the International Asteroid Day, in Luxembourg.

Action: SMPAG members and observers are invited to join these efforts and identify focal points. Please contact secretariat.

8) Minor Planet Centre Activities (MPC)

Director of MPC, Matthew Payne, presented the activities of the Minor Planet Center, highlighting data volumes submissions (daily, monthly, annual, NEO Surveyor and Rubin forecasts) and further developments. In summary: Preparations for Rubin LSST & NEO Surveyor Missions have dominated recent MPC activities; the MPC is well-prepared to handle the forecasted tenfold increase in data volume by 2028; modern, robust pipeline deployed on redundant hardware; further developments will continue with  attention and effort on improving user services and documentation. The MPC Newsletter could also be used to inform their audiences of activities related to the International Year in 2029. The presentation is available here. The Chair thanked the Director for the extended offer to host one of the future SMPAG meetings at MPC.

9)  Work of the SMPAG Working Groups (See also Annexes II and III)

9.1.  SMPAG Working Groups: SMPAG Legal WG (SMPAG LWG)

The Coordinator for the SMPAG Legal WG, Alissa Haddaji, presented the status of work.

SMPAG tasked the SMPAG Legal Working Group with further questions pertaining to the close approach of asteroid Apophis (see annex II). The next meeting of the SMPAG Legal WG is planned for 20 October.

Action: SMPAG Members not yet part of the SMPAG Legal Working Group are invited to nominate their members (see Annex II).

9.2. SMPAG Working Groups: SMPAG Apophis Flight Missions Working Group (SMPAG AFM-WG)

The Coordinator for the newly established SMPAG Apophis Flight Missions Working Group, Gerhard Kminek, thanked for the trust to lead this effort. He recalled the SMPAG AFM-WG Terms of Reference and mandate of the Working Group. The TOR with List of Members is available here. The Coordinator presented in more detail the topics to be addressed by the SMPAG AFM-WG and timeline of meetings (see annex III).

Action: The first meeting is planned for end November in a virtual format, and the secretariat will send out details.

10) General exchange of information on activities by SMPAG members

Updates on on-going activities have been provided by: AEE, ASI, CNES, CNSA, CSA, DLR, ESA, JAXA, NASA (pre-recorded) and UKSA.

11) AOB & Next meeting:

  • Next meeting (26th SMPAG): During the 62nd session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of COPUOS (2-14 February 2026): during week 1, possibly in a form of two half-day meetings on 4-5 February 2026, Vienna International Centre, Vienna, Austria
  • Information on upcoming PD-related competition (interdisciplinary challenges to planetary defence), as shared by observer for ASE at the meeting, can be found here.

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Annex I

Status of Workplan items

Item 5.1. – Completed and applied.

5.1 Criteria and thresholds for impact response actions (NASA): Completed. Final report SMPAG-RP-003, v 1.0 (Oct 2018)

Items 5.2., 5.3.,5.4., 5.5. – these items are complemented by the on-going SMPAG hypothetical asteroid impact exercises:

5.2 Mitigation mission types and technologies to be considered (UKSA): No update.

5.3 Mapping of threat scenarios to mission types (ESA): In progress (a dedicated person for this task is expected to be on-board soon to take up the task).

5.4 Reference missions for different NEO threat scenarios (ASI): ASI presented the case of the 2023 PDC hypothetical impact exercise, as reference mission, with the aim to possibly automatize the procedures and calculations.

5.5 A plan for action in case of a credible threat (NASA/ESA): An update will be done after the SMPAG exercise is completed, to take stock of the exercise. The draft report is available here.

Action: A shared drive is available, provided by ESA (similarly to IADC’s Space Debris Exercise) for sharing of data and harmonized templates.

5.6 Communication guidelines in case of a credible threat (NASA): If real preparations for a planetary defence mission start, special communication guidelines might be required. As communication is mainly addressed by IAWN, this activity could be combined with an IAWN activity on communication.

Action: by the IAWN Steering Committee – possibly a dedicated communications workshop. Update will be done after SMPAG exercise is completed, to take stock of the exercise.

5.7 Produce a roadmap for future work on planetary defence (DLR): This is a living document - SMPAG-RP-001, v. 4.0, 2 March 2023

Action: Call for comments and participation in work: SMPAG members are invited to look at the conclusions of v.4 and provide comments.  Any interested member is invited to join Alan Harris (DLR) in continuing this work since his counterpart (L. Johnson) retired.

5.8 Consequences, including failure, of NEO mitigation space missions (ESA/FFG):

Action: Draft report is being reviewed by FFG and will be submitted to SMPAG Chair.

5.9. Criteria for deflection targeting (ROSA): ROSA previously provided one-page updates that will be shared with SMPAG Chair for further action.

5.10 Study of the nuclear device option: A compilation of existing literature that addresses issues related to NEO mitigation using a nuclear device is ongoing. SMPAG members are invited to provide additional references (publication references and abstracts/summaries) and a text for an introduction and background information. Action: SMPAG Chair to take the lead, also in cooperation with SMPAG Legal WG.

5.11 Toolbox for a characterisation payload (CNES):  the preliminary table of existing instruments has been made available here. It was noted that Apophis mission proposals are also relevant for this Toolkit.

Action: Secretariat to invite SMPAG members to continue to provide updates to the NEO Toolkit

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Annex II: SMPAG Legal Working Group

A. The legal questions confirmed by SMPAG for the LWG’s upcoming work:

1. To what extent do existing legal precedents or frameworks provide guidance on simultaneous missions to the same asteroid? Are there legal lessons learned from DART & HERA? Could a State argue for priority in orbital operations?

2. How is “harmful interference” understood in this context?

3. If one mission were to negatively impact another’s scientific objectives (without physical damage), would this fall under liability, harmful interference, or neither? What standards of “due regard” apply?

B.  Call for nominations

The space agencies without an appointed member to SMPAG LWG are invited to consider nominating a representative: AEE (Spain); CSA (Canada); CNSA (China); ISA (Israel); JAXA (Japan); KASI (Republic of Korea); ROSA (Romania), Roscosmos (Russian Federation); SSAU (Ukraine); SUPARCO (Pakistan).

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ANNEX III

SMPAG Apophis Flight Missions Working Group (SMPAG AFM-WG)

Topics:

  1. Assess potential interference of ground-based observations with flight missions (and vice-versa).
  2. Assess potential interference of communication architectures (S/C to S/C and S/C to ground).
  3. Assess potential opportunities/interference of flight missions proximity operations (e.g., radio science).
  4. Discuss mission data exchange and data archiving plans (flight and ground).
  5. Discuss opportunities for coordinated messaging and communicating to the public.

Timeline:

  • KO meeting (virtual) in Nov. 2025; start with topic 1 (presentation of ground-based observations plans).
  • Progress meetings (virtual) at times and cadence to be discussed at KO.
  • 1st reporting to SMPAG at UN-COPUOS STSC, Feb. 2026.
  • Finishing content until summer 2026 and presenting at COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Scientific Sub-Commission B1 (1-9 August 2026, Florence, Italy).
  • Presenting the report to the 27th SMPAG meeting in the fall of 2026.