Mission to planet Earth: International Space Year, 1992.

• Position: Includes related articles and information on United Nations involvement, earth science, space exploration and space achievements - Cover Story

Since the dawn of civilization, peoples in every land have reached for the heavens. From Canada to Kenya, Peru to Cambodia, Great Britain to China, rings of stone point sunward and ancient buildings align with the stars. The first humans embraced the sky in legend and myth: African bushmen saw the Milky Way as the backbone of night; to the Inca, it was a river of light and life.

Only in this century has the outer space of myth and imagination become a part of our modern reality. Indeed, 1992 is the thirty-fifth anniversary of the birth of the space age: in 1957, the first man-made satellite - Sputnik I - was launched by the former Soviet Union during the International Geophysical Year, which highlighted scientific inquiry and international cooperation.

It was to recognize this milestone, as well as the 500th anniversary of terrestrial explorer Christopher Columbus' voyage to the "New World", that United State Senator Spark Matsunaga of Hawaii proposed in the summer of 1985 that an International Space Year (ISY) of globally coordinated activities be held in 1992 to constitute the first year-long, worldwide celebration of humanity's future in the new space age.

In 1988, during a meeting sponsored by the United States National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) in Durham, New Hampshire, the proposal for ISY was officially endorsed by senior official from 18 national and international space agencies. The gathering also unanimously adopted "Mission to Planet Earth" as the Year's theme.

A total of 29 national space agencies subsequently undertook in a global efforts to coordinate the Year's activities, joined by 10 international organization, including the UN and the International Council of Scientific Unions, as well as hundreds of non-governmental organizations, such as the International Astronautical Federation, Founded in 1950 and the oldest association of national societies, institutions and industrial companies dealing with outer space.

Our 'blue planet'

"One of the central goals of International Space year is to highlight the importance of understanding the Earth as a single, complex, interdependent system and to stress the unique role that space science and technology can play in promoting that understanding", said Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in a message on 28 August in Washington, D.C. to the World Space Congress, a key event of the Year.

The swirling, could-covered image from space of our "blue planet" has become...