Guest Editorial Spacecraft Charging Technology

This marks the seventh issue of the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science dedicated to Spacecraft Charging Technology. The theme of this issue is based on the papers presented at the 15th Spacecraft Charging Technology Conference, Kobe, Japan, in 2018. The history of spacecraft charging goes back to the first Spacecraft Charging Technology Conference, sponsored by AFRL and NASA, that was held at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO, USA, in 1978. The 15th Spacecraft Charging Technology Conference was hosted by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Graduate School of System Informatics, Kobe University. It continues a tradition of international conferences on a ~2-year cycle. This conference, as well as each previous one in the series, was a great success. The topical discussions have greatly helped in making progress in the fields of spacecraft charging, spacecraft-plasma interactions, and related areas. At the end of the 15th Conference, the assembly agreed to request publication of the proceedings of the conference in the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science and to encourage the submission of the papers presented at the conference to the Journal.