NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 18 – The Italian Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Maurizio Massari, met today Simonetta Di Pippo, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).
The meeting, at the Italian Mission headquarters, offered the opportunity to discuss on how to further boost Italy, EU and UN
cooperation for a long-term sustainability, safety and security of the outer space. Massari and Di Pippo agreed on working together on implementing the Common Agenda launched by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
As UNOOSA Director, Ms. Di Pippo maintains responsibility for the Office’s management and administration, provides strategic guidance to its work and ensures that it is implemented in accordance with the mandates of the General Assembly, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), and the established policies of the United Nations.
Ms. Di Pippo serves as the senior advisor to the Secretary-General and represents the SG at meetings and conferences on matters relating to the peaceful exploration and use of outer space. She also discharges the Secretary-General’s obligations under the UN treaties and principles on outer space.
After graduating from Astrophysics and Space Physics from the University “La Sapienza” in Rome, in 1984, Ms. Di Pippo joined the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in 1986. Her responsibilities ranged from earth observation to automation & robotics, science and human spaceflight and in 2002 she took up duty as Director of the ASI’s Observation of the Universe. From 2008 to 2011, she served as Director of Human Spaceflight at the European Space Agency (ESA), before returning to ASI to lead the European Space Policy Observatory at ASI-Brussels until March 2014, when she was appointed Director of UNOOSA.
In 2009, Ms. Di Pippo co-founded Women in Aerospace Europe (WIA-E). She is an Academician of the International Academy of Astronautics and since 2016 a member of WEF Global Future Council on Space Technologies, co-chairing it from 2020. (@OnuItalia)
