Saturday, February 5, 2011

Developing International Space Conduct

Space law is still a sketchy area, largely because, historically, space operations have been the nearly exclusive province of the major powers of the time. That situation has changed. Many nations now have active space programs, and many private corporations, and other organizations, are moving out.

Instead of trying to work out a major new treaty to govern the new and evolving reality, the Obama administration's space policy is taking a step-by-step approach. It is pursuing an agreement on dealing with space debris, and seeking to establish a code of conduct for space operations. Also, the U. S. is pursuing partnerships with other nations while the Department of Defense will begin offering commercial and scientific payloads rides on DoD launches that have excess capacity-- both to help establish overall rules of the road and to maximize tight budgets in tough economic times.

At some point, another major treaty will be required, but starting out by establishing a common mode of behavior seems reasonable.

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