Commerce Sees Support for Global Alignment of Space Sustainability Rules

Other nations are increasingly interested in regulatory alignment or reciprocity with the U.S. on space sustainability-related issues, leadership at Commerce's Office of Space Commerce told an FCBA audience Wednesday. But a murkier issue is who would handle that harmonization, OSC Director Richard DalBello said.

Pointing to international reciprocity and alignment of FAA rules for licensing and certifying aircraft, DalBello said there's interest in a similar approach for space operations, especially as space operations are typically global. The ITU is one likely venue for that reciprocity and alignment work to be done, as it allows direct industry input, DalBello said. But the U.N.'s Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space (COPUOS), the policy body for international space matters, considers such alignment work as its role, he said. And the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization, with its work on airspace, also believes it should have input, he said. OSC Deputy Director Janice Starzyk said the U.S. doesn't necessarily have a position about the best U.N. body for this. But Russia "has largely shut down" COPUOS, so more attention is focused on bodies like the ITU, DalBello said.

The U.S. has knocked "on China's door" about discussing space situational awareness (SSA) issues, and received a mildly affirmative but not enthusiastic response, DalBello said. "We need them at the table," he said. Pursuing similar talks with Russia isn't likely "until they rejoin the human race," he said.

DalBello said the U.S. is struggling with its "Swiss cheese regulatory approach" on commercial space operations, with responsibilities divvied up among more agencies than is common in most countries. He said some novel space activities that presumably would come under Commerce's regulatory umbrella fall outside it. The agency, perhaps being "overly conservative," holds that it can regulate only image-based remote sensing, meaning RF reception remote sensing is outside that, he said. It's likely Congress will increase the FAA's or Commerce's domestic regulatory authority on space issues, he predicted.

The status quo for space traffic coordination, with the U.S. sending operators notices that a collision might be imminent and operators being left to decide what -- if anything -- to do "is probably not going to suffice," given the huge number of satellites expected to be launched in coming years, DalBello said. OSC's SSA coordination vision issued last month (see 2404080043) anticipated a global dialogue where information is shared among what will undoubtedly be many national SSA systems, he said.