Inmarsat Wants More LEO Regulation, International Cooperation

Noting an increased possibility of low earth orbit (LEO) becoming unusable due to increased congestion, Inmarsat in a white paper Wednesday made several regulatory and best-practices recommendations. It said the U.N. should adopt binding rules and a formal mechanism for communication and coordination of collision avoidance maneuvers among major satellite constellation operators, and the agency should create an active debris removal capability under Security Council control, akin to peacekeeper operation models. It said national governments collectively should add a "space track" to G7 meetings as a route for high-level space policy coordination, and create formal threat intelligence sharing mechanisms among governments and commercial satellite operators. It said the ITU's authority should expand beyond spectrum to LEO orbital regulation. It recommended national regulators take such steps as tying LEO licensing to LEO orbital carrying capacity criteria, requiring global navigation satellite systems on LEO satellites, and creating a points-based penalty system as part of the licensing process. It said satellite operators everywhere are dealing with incomplete and inaccurate data due to a lack of international standards in object characterization, cataloguing and broader modeling assumptions. "It is time for a 'coalition of the willing' established at the highest political level among participating countries, and which would commit collectively to shared principles, regulations and coordinating mechanisms for safe space operations and orbital development," it said.