U.S. Government Looks to Mitigate Space Congestion.

• Author: Mayfield, Mandy
• Position: SPACE

With growing space congestion and plans for companies to launch thousands of additional satellites into orbit, the federal government is taking steps to manage a swell of space systems and orbiting space junk.

The Defense Department currently tracks more than 20,000 objects in space. With that number likely to increase, President Donald Trump signed a third space policy directive, SPD-3, last year. The order calls upon the Commerce Department to manage debris mitigation efforts, space traffic and create a new protocol of standard practices for safe space operations.

"The volume and location of orbital debris are growing threats to space activities," the directive said. "It is in the interest of all to minimize new debris and mitigate effects of existing debris."

The order was drafted by the National Space Council and announced by Vice President Mike Pence.

"This new policy directs the Department of Commerce to provide a basic level of space situational awareness, for public and private use based on the space catalog compiled by the Department of Defense," Pence said last April during the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The Commerce Department has started coordinating with relevant agencies to discuss setting standards for orbital debris mitigation, a spokesperson told National Defense.

It has also opened a dialogue with those in the commercial space industry to gain understanding of its current and future needs.

The department--in conjunction with its office of space commerce--hosted the Risks and Opportunities Space Summit in March 2019 to discuss space insurance, situational awareness technology and orbital debris strategies with industry, a department spokesperson said.

The spokesperson declined to provide any further information.

Although the directive to mitigate space congestion is new, the conversation about space traffic management began in 2006 after the first comprehensive academic paper on the issue was published by the International Academy of Astronautics, said Theresa Hitchens, senior research associate at the Center for International Security Studies at the University of Maryland.

The paper, "Cosmic Study on Space Traffic Management," laid out the problems of space traffic and the framework for how one could develop a management regime from a national or international level, Hitchens said.

"Pretty much the entire conversation going on right now, whether it be a national conversation at the Department of...