Understanding Space Policy & Sustainability
The rules that govern a crowded, commercial, contested domain — the treaties that keep space peaceful, the sustainability of orbits filling with satellites and debris, and the economy that launches it all. Built on real treaties and policy; treaty years are historical facts.
Related entities
- Space treaty
The Outer Space Treaty
The founding treaty of international space law, opened for signature in 1967. It declares space free for exploration and use by all nations, forbids any state from claiming sovereignty over the Moon or other bodies, bans weapons of mass destruction in orbit, and makes states responsible for their national space activities — governmental or private.
- Space-policy topic
Orbital Debris
The growing population of defunct satellites, spent rocket stages, and fragments of past collisions and explosions that circle the Earth. Travelling at kilometres per second, even a small piece can destroy an operational spacecraft, and there are millions of untracked fragments.
- Space-policy topic
The Kessler Syndrome
The scenario, named for Donald Kessler, in which the density of objects in orbit becomes high enough that collisions cascade — each impact creating more debris that causes further impacts — potentially making some orbits unusable for generations.
- Space-economy topic
The Space Economy
The whole economic system of space activity — launch, satellites, ground systems, services, and the emerging markets in resources and on-orbit servicing — and the far larger value it creates on Earth. Increasingly it is driven by private capital as much as by governments.