Space Traffic Coordination: Developing a Framework for Safety and Security in Satellite Operations

Abstract

This article investigates the extant normative framework that can be identified around the concept of space traffic management (STM). While much of the STM literature engages with how a future regime might be structured, this article attempts to engage with current processes related to space traffic coordination and give insight as to how normative growth toward space traffic management might occur. Through a survey of current legal and governance mechanisms, this article focuses its attention on open data sharing as an extant and critical coordination process that has potential for normative growth in the development of space traffic management as a formal regime.