‘This was the real thing’: Meet the woman who alerts the world when an asteroid could hit

Aarti Holla-Maini of the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs is primed to spot a potential planetary strike – and a year ago, she thought the moment had come Lunar prospectors: the businesses looking to mine the moon ‘This feels fragile’: how a satellite-smashing chain reaction could spiral out of control The UN official had trained for this moment. She had run drills and table-top exercises at her offices in Vienna, housed inside a grey and unassuming 1970s concrete tower complex next to the Danube River. Aarti Holla-Maini, a British lawyer with a background in the satellite business, needed to have at least played out the scenario step by step. As the director of the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), she was required to know exactly what she was expected to do if – and it was a big if – she were informed that a significantly large asteroid was on a possible collision course with Earth. Or, as she says with a laugh: “Armageddon.” Should that occur, Holla-Maini is the designated person who will promptly alert the UN secretary general. They will then disseminate her message to 193 member states – virtually every government in the world. Sounding the a

Mar 30, 2026 → Mar 30, 2026