[3] The next year, on 12 December 1959, the ad hoc committee was established as a permanent body by the General Assembly with its membership being further increased to 24.

Finally, it directed the committee to review reports of the World Meteorological Organization and the International Telecommunication Union in regard to outer space activities relating to weather research and analysis and telecommunication and to submit its comments and recommendations on these reports to the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly.

This gave the committee the unique position of acting as a platform for maintaining outer space for peaceful purposes at the international level.

[8] The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) has acted as the secretariat to the committee since its creation in 1958.

[13] As explained by B612 Foundation Chair Emeritus Rusty Schweickart in 2013, "No government in the world today has explicitly assigned the responsibility for planetary protection to any of its agencies".

[15] Schweickart states that an initial framework of international cooperation at the UN is needed to guide the policymakers of its member nations on several important NEO-related aspects.

[16][17] At about the same time (Oct 2013) of the UN's policy adoption in New York City, Schweickart and four other ASE members, including B612 head Ed Lu and strategic advisers Dumitru Prunariu and Tom Jones, participated at a public forum moderated by Neil deGrasse Tyson not far from the UN's headquarters, urging the global community to adopt further important steps towards planetary defence against the threat of NEO impacts.