Space Safety

Abstract

Space safety is necessary for the sustainable development and performance of space missions. Space safety best practices are important in almost any kind of space mission, manned or unmanned, commercial, scientific, exploratory, and even military. Space safety aims to protect human lives relevant infrastructures in space and on ground, and affected Earth, orbital, and planetary environments. As the pace of space exploration and commercial exploitation increases, without improved space safety practices and standards, billions of dollars (US) of space assets, many astronaut lives, and even people here on Earth could all be increasingly in peril. This chapter introduces the many facets of safety that must be addressed by spacefaring nations around the world. This chapter assesses a wide range of space safety risks in relation to the various flight phases, from launch, to on-orbit operations, to reentry while stressing the importance of new forms of international agreement to coordinate areas such as space traffic management.