IHEU’s man at the UN reports on the formation of rules governing international behaviour in space.

Outer space has become a global commons. Around a thousand operational satellites, launched from more than forty countries, are now orbiting around the earth, and another eight dozen objects are launched into space each year. Space is also an increasingly busy and dangerous place. Today’s satellites are tomorrow’s space debris. About 300 satellites in orbit are no longer in use. More than 300,000 pieces of space junk travel aimlessly, risking collision with satellites in use, most recently in February last year, when a U.S. communication satellite collided with a nonfunctional Russian military satellite and generated a large amount of debris flying at high speeds.

Clearly, we need rules of the road.

Here on earth, we enjoy the benefits of space every day. Communication satellites enable broadcasting, telephone and television signals, provide internet linkages, and support financial transactions. When a communication satellite malfunctioned in 1998, thirty million pagers went silent, credit cards failed and some radio and television networks went off the air.

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Since 1994, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) has developed standards that although not legally binding are of obvious interest to all countries. The United Nations is especially wary of military uses of outer space

http://www.iheu.org/report-un-rules-outer-space