From Bezos to satellites, does new space era need new rules?
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Dwight Weingarten Staff writer
| Washington
鈥淩oads? Where we鈥檙e going, we don鈥檛 need roads.鈥�
The closing line from 鈥淏ack to the Future鈥� fits the moment as human spaceflight expands with a pair of billionaires blasting beyond Earth鈥檚 atmosphere 鈥� Richard Branson on July 11 and Jeff Bezos scheduled for tomorrow. But behind the high-profile commercial launches, a question looms: Are more rules of the road needed, metaphorically, for a trackless domain that is seeing a rapid increase in activity?聽
The excitement this month is palpable as doors open for more people to experience space travel. Amazon founder Mr. Bezos is set to launch on the Blue Origin rocket tomorrow morning with his brother as well as people ever to enter space.
Why We Wrote This
As billionaires boldly go spaceward, it signals an era of increased activity beyond Earth鈥檚 atmosphere. Along with guiding principles, does space also need more enforceable rules?
Yet with widening opportunities come ethical and practical concerns. How do you stay safe as human traffic increases along with more satellites, scientific experimentation, debris, and potential military activity?聽聽
In May, the uncontrolled reentry of a Chinese rocket caught the world鈥檚 attention about the challenges posed by space junk, including litter that remains in permanent orbit and can put spacecraft at risk. And in September 2019 a near collision between a SpaceX satellite and European Space Agency satellite in low-earth orbit showed the lack of international guidelines on how to handle collision avoidance, according to a聽 by the research organization Rand.听
鈥淭here are very clear indications that space law, writ large, or space governance, if you want to use that term, is underdeveloped,鈥� says retired Brig. Gen. Bruce McClintock of the U.S. Air Force, who leads Rand's space enterprise initiative and is an聽author of the recent report.听聽
From principles toward more rules?
Although principles for space have been discussed internationally for years 鈥� including an Outer Space Treaty dating back to 1967 that 110 nations have signed 鈥� existing protocols are often vague or growing outdated in an era of expanding space activity. The Rand report notes the risk of a 鈥渢ragedy of the commons,鈥� a term used when parties fail to care for a place because lines of responsibility aren鈥檛 clear.
Article VI of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty requires countries to 鈥渂ear international responsibility for national activities in outer space鈥� whether they be government-run or commercially operated.听
Frans von der Dunk, a professor of space law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, says the treaty dates back to when only nations explored space, primarily the U.S. and Soviet Union.听
鈥淭he idea of commercial space flight, which is of course what Bezos is all about, was nowhere on the horizon [and] has not been dealt with in any detail,鈥� says Dr. von der Dunk, speaking from the Netherlands, where he operates a space law consultancy company.听
And while the U.S. adopted the聽聽last October, with space principles such as peaceful exploration and transparency, the聽聽is not legally binding.
When Mr. Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon鈥檚 CEO this month, boards his vehicle on Tuesday morning in West Texas for his suborbital flight, the United States will be held responsible for the activity under international law. His company, Blue Origin, is now one of many in the domain, including Mr. Branson鈥檚 Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk鈥檚 SpaceX, which launched astronauts for NASA earlier this year and operates hundreds of satellites.
鈥淲hat they are doing is definitely hazardous,鈥� says Scott Pace, who served as executive secretary for the National Space Council, a White House organization overseeing space activity that was reestablished in 2017 during the Trump administration.听
It is up to would-be space tourists to realize that. 鈥淲e have a very light regulatory regime where the major focus is making sure you don鈥檛 hurt anybody else outside the launch,鈥� says Dr. Pace, now the director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. For now he sees the need for 鈥渙nly modest evolution鈥� in domestic law to account for increasing space tourism.
At a congressional hearing about rules in space, Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee cited space traffic management, banning debris, and the size of safety zones as areas that potentially call for new international agreement.听
He bridled at the testimony of State Department experts who, in his view, were 鈥渟ettling for suggestions-based space鈥� instead of 鈥渁 law-abiding rules-based space.鈥�
鈥淧erhaps that is the best we can do, but I think we should try harder for better,鈥� said Representative Cooper, who chairs the House Armed Services Subcommittee, which oversees the space activity of the Department of Defense and the nascent Space Force. 鈥淭here must be a consensus somewhere on Earth for the sensible.鈥澛�
Can diverse nations agree?
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas says the Chinese Communist Party is defining space as another warfighting domain. 鈥淚f left unchecked, the CCP will continue to use its influence in international organizations and over other countries to achieve dominance without regard to the security and sustainability of outer space,鈥� says Mr. McCaul, in an email to the Monitor.听
And while right now the tourism attention is on U.S.-based billionaires like Mr. Bezos, Dr. Pace says China has billionaires too. It is unlikely the commercial space market will remain so U.S.-dominated in the future.听
He notes that the U.S. and China seem to 鈥渉ave a lot of common ground in things like space resources and coordinating with each other.鈥� For those in the space business, he says it鈥檚 possible to see a cooperative arrangement.
Notably, however, while just 聽Brazil became the 12th country to join the Artemis Accords,聽China and Russia are not signatories. Those two nations teamed up earlier this year to announce plans to jointly construct a聽.听
鈥淗ow we operate in space does reflect our values,鈥� says Dr. Pace, the executive secretary for the National Space Council when the Artemis Accords were adopted. And those operations have shifted.
The Artemis program, a NASA-led international effort聽to send the first woman and next man to the surface of the Moon in 2024, is a change of strategy from the Apollo program of the 20th century, Dr. Pace says.听
鈥淟eadership today is very different,鈥� he says, 鈥淚n the 鈥�60s, it was all about what we can do by ourselves. Today, it鈥檚 who can we get to come with us.鈥�
