"The legal void of space void": Space legislation raises more and more questions

The human being is sending more and more objects into space, a trend on the verge of sudden acceleration, with multiple projects of satellite constellations. Inevitably, this activity increases the number of debris in orbit and the risk of collision. Problem: Currently, there is no real regulation to frame these practices ...
Two weeks ago, Washington hosted the 70th International Astronautical Congress. In particular, participants were able to discuss a topic that is too often overlooked: that of space legislation.

Towards constellations of space debris?

This lack of consideration for the legal aspect of space exploration is due to the recent nature of this activity. The first satellite in history, Sputnik, finally dates back to just over 60 years (1957). For many years, the space race has only involved major nations, starting with the USSR and the United States. And given the immensity of the targeted area, we did not ask the question of its size.

But the deal could soon change. Because from now on, many organizations may consider launching their own satellite. And some see things in big, aiming to put into orbit constellations of small spacecraft. The most famous of these projects is certainly Starlink, by SpaceX,42,000 minisatellites. But Elon Musk's company is not the only one in this field: others have also launched, like Amazon, with the Kuiper project, or Airbus, with OneWeb.


This growth in activity will inevitably be accompanied by an increase in the number of useless objects in space: upper stages of rockets, inactive satellites, and a myriad of debris. And this pollution can take time to fade. Thus, according to Christophe Bonnal, who chairs the Space Debris Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), a satellite located at 1,000 km of altitude takes 1,000 years to fall back into the atmosphere, after its decommissioning.

A situation today not worrying, but until when?

Nevertheless, in the current state, we can not speak of real congestion. "  Space is infinitely empty, it has nothing to do with marine pollution,  " says Christophe Bonnal. In fact, there are currently some twenty thousand objects in orbit whose size exceeds 10 cm. Therefore, if the risks of collision exist, accident cases are rare at present.


However, the need to supervise space activity is becoming more and more urgent. This is emphasized by Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) and the Council of the European Space Agency (ESA): "  It is starting to become urgent because of the constellation projects  ".

Prevent rather than heal

Because for the time being, we can not blame the big players in the industry, including SpaceX and its 42,000 satellites, for not respecting the laws. And for good reason: "  The problem is that there are no rules,  " laments Jean-Yves le Gall.

Therefore, today, the main measures are rather curative. For example, the American start-up LeoLabs deploys radars to monitor space debris and anticipate potential collision risks. For its part, ESA has launched a project called "  Clean Space  ", aimed at "clean space", but also to promote the design of objects producing less debris.

In addition, other initiatives are being taken on a larger scale. For example, France has adopted a law requiring the recovery of any satellite placed in low orbit after 25 years. This rule is also applied by NASA but without any legal constraint.

The chimera of a short-term international law

The problem is that these are just one-off, limited initiatives. On the contrary, the idea would be to establish a global regulation to which any organization involved in the space sector should submit.

That being said, some organizations have tried to put in place texts at the international level. This is the case of the Space Safety Coalition, which has published a charter, signed by several industry players, without managing to bring everyone together.


And even if such an initiative succeeds in convincing the whole sector, what would happen if, in the end, one of the signatories did not respect its commitments? For the moment, absolutely nothing, since no legal framework comes to prolong the text. Today, the only recourse is to hope that the various actors comply with the rules of "good behavior". Waiting for a real international law, which could take decades to see the light of day. It may be too late now.

Source: FrenchWeb with AFP