Anti-Satellite Test Pledge Seen as Step Toward More Space Norms
The U.S. hopes its drive for international agreement on a direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) testing ban will be a springboard for crafting international norms for other space operations issues, said Eric Desautels, State Department acting deputy assistant secretary-arms control, verification and compliance, Wednesday. At a conference put on by Aerospace's Center for Space Policy and Strategy and George Washington University's Space Policy Institute. Desautels said the U.S. will try to direct U.N. discussions in coming months toward establishing norms on such issues as purposeful interference with satellite command and control and ASAT testing near other countries' satellites. The U.S. committed in April to not doing direct-ascent ASAT testing (see 2204190057).
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Federal agency panelists spent several minutes talking about growing regulatory mismatches for emerging space activities. Richard DalBello, Commerce Department's director-NOAA Office of Space Commerce, said the agency has responsibility for earth imaging mission regulation, but its remote sensing rules don't cover RF sensing. Citing the FCC's notice of inquiry on helping to bolster the nascent in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing industry (see 2208050023), he said the commission "has been intellectually active in a helpful way," but Congress and the White House need to make decisions about the U.S.' current piecemeal regulatory approach and how space authority is divided. There are numerous possible paradigms, he said, with some nations having a space authority with all regulatory oversight, while others maintain a portal where government back-channel activities are out of view.
Momentum is building among U.S. industry and government and allies for remediating orbital debris, and now is the time to think about shifting priority to focus on reducing risk and costs and on operational effects, said Tom Colvin, NASA policy adviser-Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy. He pitched a policy approach to orbital debris remediation that focuses more on operational costs than removing debris for the sake of doing so. He said the space industry hasn't started quantifying the operational effects of orbital debris, such as the costs of avoidance maneuvering. That quantification would put a dollar figure on what debris is worth and allow for talks on how to reduce those, he said. Such an approach "is not a Band-Aid, it's a tourniquet," Colvin said.
Travis Langster, DOD space policy principal director, said the U.S. ASAT commitment was intended to meaningfully limit new orbital debris generation, be easily understandable and nonambiguous, and preserve national security interests of the U.S. and allies. He said focusing on behavior rather than technological capability doesn't disadvantage the U.S. He said DOD will work with the State Department on getting more commitments from other nations.
The U.S. hopes to gain ASAT ban support even from nations that didn't plan to develop the capability, demonstrating it as a norm of responsible behavior, State's Desautels said. Canada and New Zealand have made similar commitments, he said. He said the U.S. could seek a nonbinding U.N. General Assembly resolution against direct-ascent ASAT, as that would put pressure on countries planning such testing. He said the U.S. also could consider a binding arms control agreement, though that approach is longer term.