Legal and policy perspectives on civil-military cooperation for the establishment of space traffic management

Abstract

Space Traffic Management (STM) is already acknowledged as a concept for the regulation of space activities by the Legal Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS). The current United Nations assumption is comprehensive for all space activities and facilitates this conceptualisation. However, very little is known about how the respective requirements are met in practice. STM policies and strategies have been developed at the governmental, intergovernmental and international level demonstrating the wide acceptance of its relevance for the growing challenges in the space sector. This paper, in particular, addresses elements of civil and military cooperation as an emerging dynamic with implications for the development of STM. Hence, it examines this issue by looking into comparable traffic regimes: air traffic, maritime traffic and radio frequency spectrum. Drawing on the fundamental principle of international cooperation and the peaceful uses of outer space, this paper aims to contribute to the further refinement of a STM regime.