On August 12, Hemu Nigam, Jamie Schumacher, Neeharika Thuravil, and Meghana Chigurupati published "The Future of Orbital Compliance Starts with Geoconsciousness" in The National Interest. The following is an excerpt:
As Earth’s orbital regimes shift from a scientific frontier into a commercial operating environment, satellite operators, aerospace manufacturers, investors, and regulators face a growing reality: orbital traffic management is rapidly becoming a compliance issue, not merely an engineering hurdle.
Today, more than 10,200 active satellites share the space in lower Earth orbit and its geosynchronous regimes. As commercial launch activity, satellite constellation deployment, in-space servicing, and orbital manufacturing continue to expand, this orbital band will begin to fill up.
With few anti-crowding protocols in place for commercial payloads, the policy, regulatory, and compliance concerns now emerging at the edge of space operations will only become greater. Thus, organizations that prepare early will be better positioned to demonstrate readiness, reduce regulatory exposure, and avoid costly gaps in future certification or licensing processes.
Click here to access the article.