Gen. James Dickinson: Space traffic management should be transferred to a civilian agency as soon as possible HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — When U.S. Space Command was established in 2019, the unit responsible for monitoring space traffic was tracking about 25,000 pieces of debris in orbit. Three years later, that number has […]
Space Traffic
155 posts
It’s unclear how much longer industries and governments can continue to operate safely in space without globally coordinated traffic management, says a new report from the Atlantic Council WASHINGTON — Commercial and government activities in outer space are increasingly endangered by rapidly growing congestion in the space environment. And it’s […]
WASHINGTON — The new head of the Office of Space Commerce says he’s talking with industry on how his office can best take over civil space traffic management while also potentially taking on more regulatory responsibilities. Speaking June 22 at the Fourth Summit for Space Sustainability by the Secure World […]
Why a good-enough STM approach is better than perfect Whatever space traffic management framework emerges — assuming something more formal ever does — it will be far from perfect. No traffic management framework in any domain eliminates accidents. Unintentional collisions in space will happen. Space traffic management (STM) should be […]
A market ecosystem that incentivizes the rapid development and fielding of advanced Space Traffic Management (STM) technologies will be a key enabler to the sustainable growth of the space economy. As defined by the International Academy of Astronautics , STM protects future sector growth by encouraging the development and application […]
Some operators of low Earth orbit satellites are bracing for a storm of debris. Russia’s demonstration of an antisatellite weapon last November, destroying the Cosmos 1408 satellite, created thousands of tracked pieces of debris, and many more too small to be tracked. Much of that debris remains in orbits similar […]
WASHINGTON — The European Union is rolling out a new space traffic management initiative to build up its abilities in the field while working with both the United States and the United Nations. The European Commission released Feb. 15 a “joint communication” outlining the E.U.’s approach to space traffic management […]
Millions of pieces of orbital debris big enough to harm satellites but too tiny to track threaten “permanent stability and safety in orbit.” Over the past few years, and especially in the last few months, the issue of space traffic management (STM) has been discussed from the U.S. Senate floor […]