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The space environment is increasingly crowded, with the launch of large constellations of satellites. There are many stakeholders involved in monitoring the Earth orbital environment and providing collision alert services for satellite operator customers. There are governmental services providing alerts to satellite operators. There are also an increasing number of private actors monitoring satellites and space debris, predicting orbits, and providing collision avoidance alerts as a service. The challenge is how to encourage the innovation occurring in the private sector while providing space traffic management and improve safety. This paper examines opportunities to make progress in this challenge in the technical, policy and law aspects, and proposes an international space traffic management framework to improve global space situational awareness and collision avoidance from an international perspective. This work is based on a team project of the International Space University Space Studies Program 2023, an intensive nine-week program covering all aspects of space. The international participants had a wide range of relevant expertise including satellite flight control operations, regulation, space engineering, and policy and law. The 2023 program was hosted at the Aeronautics Institute of Technology, ITA, and the National Institute for Space Research, INPE, in São José dos Campos, Brazil.

Type

Conference paper

Publication Date

01/01/2023

Volume

2023-October