Looking for the Rules-of-the-Road of Outer Space: A search for basic traffic rules in treaties, guidelines and standards

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  • Hjalte Osborn Frandsen

The rapidly growing population of satellites increases risk of congestion, collisions and debris generation in the orbits closest to earth. In addition to the quantitative increase in activity, the orbital domains are becoming less predictable with the broadening of what operations are technologically and economically viable. Mega-constellations of disposable satellites, on-orbit-servicing and refuelling, space tourism, increased manoeuvring, inter alia are complicating tracking and coordination. The effect is a still more complex and busy near earth orbital environment. Academics and policymakers, as well as private actors, including satellite operators, recognize the urgent need for international governance of space traffic. However, there is far from agreement on the most feasible regulatory form for an international Space Traffic Management regime. In this paper it is argued that the long-running arguments about the most feasible regulatory approach to Space Traffic Management, has been overshadowing the equally important discussion concerning the actual core provisions of the traffic regime, namely the Rules-of-the-Road. The paper seeks to clarify the concept of Rules-of-the-Road in the context of space traffic. The core contribution is an analysis of the state of Rules-of-the-Road in international space law today, considering a broad array of hard and soft legal instruments. The systematic analysis spans from the formal law of the Outer Space Treaties to soft law instruments developed by UNCOPUOS, private sector stakeholders and others, including technical standards. The reviewed instruments vary in scope and have garnered varying degrees of international support, but all have an impact on the current traffic regime in orbit. The discussion of regulatory approaches is sidestepped by focusing on distilling the concrete Rules-of-the-Road from the instruments, irrespective of how they can or should have legal effect. The investigation find that despite the many initiatives related to Space Traffic Management, there are few tangible, specific rules clarifying how actual Space Traffic should be conducted on an operational level. In other words, there is an absence of actual “Rules-of-the-Road” for traffic in Low Earth Orbit in the current body of international space law. The paper argues that this area needs to be elaborated by technical and regulatory experts and present an opportunity to further the discussions on a functional, international Space Traffic Management regime.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Space Safety Engineering
Volume9
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)231-238
Number of pages8
ISSN2468-8975
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

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© 2022 International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety

    Research areas

  • Debris, Guidelines, Rules-of-the-Road, Space traffic management, Standards

ID: 326692013