Increasingly Crowded Space Seen Stretching US SSA Capabilities, Policy
The potential of thousands of non-geostationary orbit satellites going up in coming years is outpacing U.S. space policy and law, especially when it comes to space situational awareness, said experts at a Center for Strategic & International Studies panel Wednesday. A major SSA challenge is the way proposed NGSO mega constellations are shifting the space domain from being government-dominated to being led by commercial actors, said Victoria Samson, Secure World Foundation Washington office director. Another is figuring out data sharing and transparency issues, and while DOD wants to be more transparent with its SSA data relied on globally, it "has some work to do" on better coordinating with the space community, she said.
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Congress needs to get involved in SSA since the authority lies with lawmakers to decide whether that monitoring and tracking of objects in space will be the domain of Commerce or Transportation, Samson said, adding that the Senate and House are split on the issue. Audrey Schaffer, director-space strategy and plans, Office of the Secretary of Defense, said Congress also needs to change legislation that would allow DOD "not to be the storefront for that data anymore."
The U.S. needs to work more on figuring out how to regulate space commercial ventures coming online before discussion of a broader international rules regime, Schaffer said. She said rather than trying to get international and universal SSA rules, it's smarter to start crafting norms and standards with a technical foundation through industry-led approaches. Companies and governments could adopt those norms voluntarily, and then they could be brought up at the international level, she said. Added Samson, the U.S. is leading in commercial SSA activity and other countries likely will look to it as an example for their regulatory regimes.
Investment in SSA capabilities is growing globally by nations ranging from Poland to Thailand, said Institute for Defense Analyses researcher Bhavya Lal. Most nations know the DOD database is incomplete, and that as their dependence on space increases, they should be more proactive in SSA. She said countries also often want to reduce their dependence on U.S. data, though also are very interested in collaboration with America. Partnerships with countries other than the U.S. are increasing, with Chile and South Africa seeing growing interest as locations for sensor arrays to monitor space traffic, she said.
There's "a lot of discomfort" internationally around the idea of a global space traffic management (STM) regime using SSA data and acting as space traffic cop, especially if the U.S. leads it, Lal said. That likely means no formal international regime in the next decade, but instead a system of informal agreements, guidelines and norms, she said.
Asked about the possibility of an internationally maintained SSA database, Samson said, "Let's work with the stuff we have currently." Schaffer said an international or UN database might be years off, but the foundation for that is data interoperability and data standards, and the groundwork could start now.
Schaffer said creation of a national space force or space corps hopefully doesn't upset U.S. efforts at greater international cooperation on SSA: The recognition space is a war-fighting domain "is long overdue," given the reliance on space for supporting military and commercial activity.