UNSOCH Terms and Conditions of Use

The UN Satellite Operator Contact Hub (UNSOCH) is a restricted coordination tool operated by or on behalf of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) to support trusted contact sharing among authorised space actors. UNOOSA is an integral part of the United Nations, and thus all relevant rules, regulations and directives apply.

The purpose of UNSOCH is to help verified satellite operators, authorised Member State representatives, United Nations entities, and other approved users identify appropriate points of contact for satellite coordination, including pre-deployment contacts, in-orbit operational contacts, and 24/7 spacecraft operations centre contacts.

UNSOCH is intended to support information exchange, transparency, confidence-building, registration readiness, and timely human-to-human coordination. UNSOCH is not a space surveillance, conjunction assessment, collision-avoidance, or command-and-control service.

Use of UNSOCH is subject to these Terms and Conditions of Use. By accessing or using UNSOCH, the user confirms that they have read, understood, and agree to comply with these Terms.

UNSOCH or Platform: the UN Satellite Operator Contact Hub, including its web interface, restricted directory, administrative portal, application programming interfaces, metadata synchronization tools, exported messages, documentation, and related services.

United Nations: the United Nations, including UNOOSA and any other United Nations office or entity involved in the operation, governance, hosting, maintenance, or support of UNSOCH.

User: any individual who accesses UNSOCH, including administrators, operator users, Member State users, United Nations users, technical users, API users, and any other authorised person.

Operator: an organisation responsible for operating or managing one or more space objects, satellite systems, constellations, or associated spacecraft operations contacts listed in UNSOCH.

Operator Data: information submitted by or about an Operator, including organisation details, contact details, spacecraft operations centre contacts, satellite associations, regulatory or registration-readiness fields, and related metadata.

Contact Data: names, positions, email addresses, telephone numbers, duty contacts, escalation pathways, and related information used for operational coordination.

Restricted Data: any data not intended for public disclosure, including Operator contacts, spacecraft operations centre details, account information, audit logs, non-public satellite associations, and restricted API outputs.

Public Catalog Metadata: non-confidential information obtained or derived from public catalogues or public sources, such as International Designator, NORAD catalogue identifier, object name, orbital regime, or object status.

API: any machine-readable interface provided by UNSOCH, including identifier lookup endpoints, operator lookup endpoints, satellite association endpoints, and CCSDS OCM XML export functions.

OCM Export: an XML output generated by UNSOCH using selected Orbit Comprehensive Message fields for contact-directory purposes.

UNSOCH may provide some or all of the following functions:

1. A restricted directory of verified satellite operators and associated contact points.

2. Search and lookup by satellite identifier, including International Designator, NORAD catalogue identifier, and object name.

3. Operator profile management, including draft, submission, review, and publication workflows.

4. Administrative review of operator registrations, profile changes, and satellite associations.

5. Metadata enrichment from public sources, subject to review and approval.

6. Restricted API access for authorised users and systems.

7. Export of selected contact information in CCSDS OCM-style XML format.

8. Audit logging and monitoring for security, governance, and quality assurance.

UNSOCH may be modified, suspended, limited, or discontinued at any time, in whole or in part, at the discretion of the United Nations. The United Nations shall have no obligation to take the needs of any User into consideration in connection therewith.

The United Nations reserves the right to deny in its sole discretion any user access to this Platform or any portion thereof without notice.

Access to UNSOCH is restricted. Users may access UNSOCH only if they have been authorised by the United Nations.

User categories may include:

1. Administrators: users authorised to manage accounts, review requests, approve or reject updates, run metadata synchronization, and view audit logs.

2. Operators: users authorised to maintain their organisation profile, contact points, satellite associations, and related information.

3. Member State or UN Partner Users: users granted read-only or limited access in accordance with applicable governance rules.

4. API Users: users or systems authorised to access UNSOCH through approved API credentials or session-based authentication.

The United Nations may approve, reject, suspend, revoke, or limit access at any time. Access is personal to the authorised user or approved system account. Users may not share credentials, transfer accounts, or allow unauthorised persons to access UNSOCH.

Users may be required to provide accurate and complete information during registration, onboarding, or periodic revalidation.

Users agree to provide truthful, accurate, current, and complete information and to update it promptly when changes occur. The United Nations may require additional verification, including organisational domain verification, confirmation of authority to represent an Operator, or other checks appropriate to the governance model.

Access to and use of password-protected and/or secure areas of the Platform is restricted to authorised users. Unauthorised access to such areas is prohibited. As a registered UNSOCH user, you agree that you are solely responsible for activities that occur under your account. Accordingly, you agree and understand that you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of passwords and other credentials associated with any account you use to this Platform.

If you become aware of any unauthorised use of your password or of your account, you agree to notify the UNSOCH contact point immediately.

Users are responsible for:

1. Maintaining the confidentiality of account credentials.

2. Ensuring that account access is used only by authorised personnel.

3. Using UNSOCH only for authorised coordination purposes.

4. Ensuring that all submitted information is accurate, current, and complete.

5. Promptly updating contact information, especially 24/7 spacecraft operations centre details.

6. Promptly notifying UNSOCH administrators of suspected unauthorised access, compromised credentials, incorrect data, or misuse.

7. Complying with applicable laws, regulations, export-control obligations, organisational policies, and these Terms.

8. Respecting confidentiality restrictions and role-based access limitations.

9. Avoiding any action that may compromise the security, availability, integrity, or proper functioning of UNSOCH.

Operators are responsible for the accuracy and currency of their own Operator Data, including satellite associations and operational contact details.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs claims no responsibility for data submitted to UNSOCH by the users. The users are solely responsible for the information they are providing.

Users may use UNSOCH solely for authorised purposes related to space-object coordination, operator contact discovery, registration-readiness support, safety-related communication, escalation support, and other functions approved by the United Nations.

Use of the Platform does not create any entitlement to receive specific data, access any specific contact, or rely on UNSOCH for operational decisions.

Users must not:

1. Access or attempt to access UNSOCH without authorisation.

2. Share, transfer, sublicense, resell, publish, scrape, harvest, or redistribute Restricted Data without written authorisation from the United Nations.

3. Use UNSOCH to create a competing commercial directory, contact database, SSA service, or derivative product without authorisation.

4. Use UNSOCH data for marketing, solicitation, profiling, competitive intelligence, or unrelated commercial purposes.

5. Use UNSOCH to harass, threaten, spam, impersonate, or mislead another user or organisation.

6. Circumvent authentication, role-based access controls, rate limits, audit logging, or API restrictions.

7. Probe, scan, stress-test, overload, disrupt, reverse-engineer, or interfere with the Platform.

8. Upload malware, malicious scripts, harmful files, or unauthorised automated tools.

9. Introduce inaccurate, misleading, unauthorised, or knowingly incomplete Operator or satellite information.

10. Use UNSOCH as the sole basis for safety-critical, life-critical, manoeuvre, collision-avoidance, emergency-response, regulatory, licensing, or legal decisions.

11. Use the Platform in a manner that violates applicable export-control, sanctions, cybersecurity, privacy, telecommunications, spectrum, or space-related obligations.

The User specifically acknowledges and agrees that the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is not liable for any conduct of any User.

Operators may submit, edit, and maintain information about their organisation, satellites, contact points, and related profile fields.

Profile updates may follow a draft, submission, review, and publication workflow:

1. The Operator edits profile information.

2. The Operator may save draft changes.

3. The Operator submits changes for approval.

4. Administrators review the proposed changes.

5. Administrators approve, reject, or request revisions.

6. Approved changes become part of the published Operator record.

Draft changes are not official UNSOCH records until reviewed and approved, where review is required. The United Nations may reject, edit, suspend, remove, or annotate submitted data if it is inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, unauthorised, inconsistent with UNSOCH governance requirements, or otherwise inappropriate for publication in the restricted directory.

UNSOCH may link Operators to satellites or space objects using one or more identifiers, including:

1. International Designator.

2. NORAD catalogue identifier.

3. Object name.

4. Constellation or system name.

5. Other identifiers approved by the United Nations.

Identifier lookup is intended to help users locate the associated Operator and contact information. It is not a representation that the linked Operator is the only relevant responsible party, the legal owner, the launching State, the licensing authority, or the State of registry.

Users should treat identifier search results as coordination aids and should verify critical information through appropriate official, operational, or regulatory channels.

UNSOCH may provide an export function that returns selected Operator contact information in an XML format aligned with selected fields of the CCSDS Orbit Comprehensive Message (OCM).

The OCM export may include fields such as: INTERNATIONAL_DESIGNATOR, OPERATOR, COUNTRY, CONSTELLATION, ORIGINATOR_POC, ORIGINATOR_POSITION, ORIGINATOR_PHONE, ORIGINATOR_EMAIL, TECH_POC, TECH_POSITION, TECH_PHONE, TECH_EMAIL.

The XML export is intended for contact-directory exchange and coordination purposes only. It does not provide a full orbit determination product, ephemeris, conjunction assessment, tracking service, manoeuvre recommendation, or operational safety determination.

Users are responsible for validating whether any UNSOCH-generated XML output is appropriate for their own systems, workflows, and interface control documents.

UNSOCH APIs are restricted. API access may require authentication, authorisation, session controls, API keys, signed credentials, rate limits, network restrictions, or other controls.

API users must:

1. Use API endpoints only for authorised purposes.

2. Protect API credentials and tokens.

3. Not share credentials with unauthorised users or systems.

4. Not exceed approved usage limits.

5. Not scrape, bulk harvest, mirror, cache, or redistribute Restricted Data unless specifically authorised.

6. Implement reasonable technical safeguards for any data received.

7. Immediately notify UNSOCH administrators of suspected compromise, misuse, or unauthorised access.

The United Nations may monitor API usage, suspend credentials, rotate keys, impose rate limits, restrict endpoints, modify API schemas, or discontinue API access at any time.

Users must treat Restricted Data as confidential unless explicitly marked or agreed otherwise.

Users must not disclose Restricted Data to unauthorised persons, publish it externally, redistribute it to third parties, or use it outside the authorised UNSOCH purpose.

Users may share contact information obtained through UNSOCH only with individuals within their organisation or formally designated operational partners who have a legitimate need to know for the approved purpose, provided that the user’s organisation retains full responsibility for ensuring compliance with these Confidentiality terms.

Users must apply appropriate organisational, technical, and administrative controls to protect Restricted Data from unauthorised access, disclosure, modification, or loss. If a user becomes aware of unauthorised disclosure, compromise, or misuse of UNSOCH data, they must notify UNSOCH administrators promptly.

UNSOCH is intended to improve access to verified Operator contact information, but the United Nations does not guarantee that all information will be complete, current, accurate, available, or suitable for any particular purpose.

Operators are responsible for maintaining accurate and current data. Users should verify critical information directly with the relevant Operator, authority, or official source before relying on it for time-sensitive or operational decisions.

Administrators may conduct verification, periodic review, audit, or quality checks, but such checks do not remove the User’s or Operator’s responsibility for accuracy.

UNSOCH may use public catalogue metadata or third-party information sources for enrichment, matching, validation, or display.

Such third-party or public-source information may be incomplete, outdated, inaccurate, delayed, or subject to third-party terms.

The United Nations does not control third-party sources and does not guarantee the availability, accuracy, completeness, or suitability of such information. Where UNSOCH uses public catalog metadata, it should not overwrite confidential Operator contact data without appropriate review and approval.

The United Nations may monitor, record, audit, and review use of UNSOCH for purposes including:

1. Authentication and access control.

2. Security monitoring.

3. Misuse detection.

4. API usage management.

5. Data-quality review.

6. Administrative accountability.

7. Incident response.

8. Compliance with UNSOCH governance procedures.

Users acknowledge that actions within UNSOCH may be logged, including sign-in events, profile edits, submitted updates, approvals, rejections, API calls, synchronization activities, and administrative actions. Users must not attempt to bypass, disable, or interfere with logging, monitoring, or access-control mechanisms.

UNSOCH may process personal data such as names, job titles, institutional email addresses, telephone numbers, account identifiers, login activity, and audit logs.

Such personal data is processed for purposes including account administration, identity verification, Operator coordination, access control, security, audit, support, and operation of UNSOCH.

Users must only submit personal data that they are authorised to provide and that is necessary for the purpose of UNSOCH. Users must ensure that operational contacts listed in UNSOCH are aware, as appropriate, that their contact information may be included in a restricted coordination directory accessible to authorised users.

A separate Privacy Notice or Data Protection Notice may be displayed alongside these Terms. Nothing in these Terms limits or replaces any applicable United Nations data protection or privacy policy.

UNSOCH may be unavailable, interrupted, delayed, restricted, modified, or discontinued due to maintenance, security incidents, infrastructure issues, user management, policy changes, or other reasons.

The United Nations does not guarantee uninterrupted, timely, secure, error-free, or continuous availability of UNSOCH.

The United Nations may change, update, limit, suspend, or discontinue any part of UNSOCH at any time.

UNSOCH is a coordination and contact-discovery tool. It does not provide legal advice, regulatory approval, attribution of ownership, control or State responsibility, space-object registration, liability determinations, licensing approval, collision-avoidance advice, conjunction assessment, tracking, ephemeris validation, manoeuvre planning, or safety-of-flight certification.

Users must not rely on UNSOCH as the sole basis for:

1. Collision avoidance decisions.

2. Manoeuvre planning.

3. Emergency response.

4. Mission-critical operations.

5. Regulatory, licensing, or registration determinations.

6. Legal responsibility or liability determinations.

7. Attribution of ownership, control, or State responsibility.

Any operational decision remains the responsibility of the relevant Operator, authority, mission team, or other responsible entity.

Unless otherwise indicated, the content, software, interface, documentation, data structures, templates, and materials made available through UNSOCH are protected by applicable intellectual property, database, and other rights.

Subject to these Terms and assigned user permissions, users may access and use UNSOCH materials solely for authorised internal coordination purposes. Users may not copy, reproduce, publish, redistribute, modify, commercialise, reverse-engineer, or create derivative services from UNSOCH materials or Restricted Data without prior written authorisation from the United Nations.

Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of Operator Data from the submitting Operator to the United Nations. By submitting Operator Data, the Operator grants the United Nations permission to use, process, display, validate, store, transmit, and make such data available within UNSOCH for authorised purposes.

The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on the maps on this Platform do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the United Nations as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries.

The mentioning of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the United Nations.

Users may submit data, corrections, comments, support requests, suggestions, or feedback. By submitting such information, the user represents that they have the right and authority to provide it.

The United Nations may use feedback, suggestions, and correction requests to improve UNSOCH, subject to applicable confidentiality, privacy, and governance requirements.

Users should not submit classified, export-controlled, commercially sensitive, personal, or restricted information unless authorised and unless UNSOCH is approved to receive such information.

The United Nations may suspend, restrict, or terminate access to UNSOCH at any time, including where:

1. A user violates these Terms.

2. A user no longer requires access.

3. A user’s authority to represent an organisation cannot be verified.

4. Account credentials are suspected to be compromised.

5. Submitted information is false, misleading, outdated, or unauthorised.

6. Continued access may create security, privacy, operational, reputational, or governance risks.

7. The United Nations modifies, suspends, or discontinues the Platform.

Termination or suspension does not affect obligations relating to confidentiality, restricted use, data protection, intellectual property, audit logs, preservation of immunities, or any other clause intended to survive termination.

UNSOCH and all information, materials, APIs, outputs, exports, and services made available through UNSOCH are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

To the fullest extent permitted under applicable rules and without prejudice to the privileges and immunities of the United Nations, the United Nations makes no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, including as to:

1. Accuracy.

2. Completeness.

3. Timeliness.

4. Availability.

5. Security.

6. Error-free operation.

7. Fitness for a particular purpose.

8. Suitability for operational, legal, regulatory, safety, or commercial use.

9. Non-infringement.

10. Compatibility with user systems or third-party systems.

Users access and use UNSOCH at their own responsibility.

Without prejudice to the privileges and immunities of the United Nations, the United Nations shall not be liable for any loss, damage, claim, cost, or expense arising from or related to:

1. Use of or inability to use UNSOCH.

2. Incorrect, incomplete, unavailable, or outdated data.

3. Reliance on UNSOCH outputs.

4. Unauthorised access or disclosure caused by a user or third party.

5. Interruption, suspension, or discontinuation of the Service.

6. Third-party systems, public catalogues, external links, or external data sources.

7. Operational decisions taken by users or third parties.

8. API integration errors, XML export errors, or system compatibility issues.

Under no circumstances shall the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs be liable for any loss, damage, liability or expense incurred or suffered that is claimed to have resulted from the use of UNSOCH, including, without limitation, any fault, error, omission, interruption or delay with respect thereto. The use of UNSOCH is at the User’s sole risk. Under no circumstances, including but not limited to negligence, shall the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs or its affiliates be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, even if the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

As a condition of use of UNSOCH, the User agrees to indemnify the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and its affiliates from and against any and all actions, claims, losses, damages, liabilities and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of the User’s use of the Platform, including, without limitation, any claims alleging facts that if true would constitute a breach by the User of these Terms and Conditions. If the User is dissatisfied with any material or information on this Platform or with any of its Terms and Conditions of Use, the User’s sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the Platform.

Users and participating organisations are responsible for their authorised use of UNSOCH and for complying with these Terms. The United Nations may require additional participation, data-access, or administrative arrangements for non-UN users, API users, or organisations receiving access to Restricted Data.

Users must cooperate in good faith with reasonable requests from the United Nations relating to suspected misuse, unauthorised disclosure, compromised credentials, incorrect data, or security incidents involving UNSOCH.

This Platform may contain links and references to third-party web sites. The linked sites are not under the control of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is not responsible for the content of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of a link or reference does not imply the endorsement of the linked site by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

Users are responsible for reviewing applicable third-party terms and privacy policies before using third-party services.

Users are responsible for ensuring that their use of UNSOCH complies with applicable legal, regulatory, export-control, sanctions, cybersecurity, privacy, telecommunications, spectrum, and space-related obligations.

Users must not use UNSOCH to submit, retrieve, transmit, or disclose information in violation of applicable restrictions. The United Nations may restrict, suspend, or deny access where required or appropriate for legal, policy, security, or operational reasons.

Users must promptly notify UNSOCH administrators if they become aware of:

1. Incorrect or outdated operational contact information.

2. Suspected unauthorised access.

3. Credential compromise.

4. Data leakage or unauthorised disclosure.

5. Misuse of UNSOCH data.

6. Security vulnerabilities.

7. API misuse.

8. Misattributed satellite associations.

9. Incorrect Operator records.

10. Any event that could affect trust, safety, or data quality.

The United Nations reserves the right to update or amend these Terms at any time. Updated Terms will be posted on the Platform and take effect immediately on posting unless otherwise stated. Continued access to UNSOCH after updated Terms become effective constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms, unless otherwise stated.

If a user or organisation does not accept updated Terms, the United Nations may suspend or terminate access.

Nothing herein shall constitute or be considered to be a limitation upon or a waiver of the privileges and immunities of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, which are specifically reserved.

Questions concerning access, use, data quality, account status, or interpretation of these Terms should first be addressed through the UNSOCH support or administrative channels.

Nothing in these Terms shall be deemed to submit the United Nations to any national court, tribunal, administrative authority, arbitration, or other dispute-settlement process, except as expressly agreed in writing by the United Nations.

For questions about these Terms, access requests, account issues, data corrections, or security concerns, contact:

UNSOCH Support: [email protected]

UNSOCH Security / Incident Reporting: [email protected]

UNOOSA Contact Point: [email protected]

Postal Address: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, Vienna International Centre, PO Box 500, 1400 Vienna, Austria