Needs of an International Policy and a Regulation Framework for Operational Debris Mitigation

The lack of a shared definition of space debris, jurisdiction on ownership and legal & policy issues, will affect the operations of future debris removal systems. The analysis of these items are an essential step for a governance and regulation framework and to draft a set of specific rules to be agreed at national and international level. All these aspects are very sensitive and they involve constraints in relation to the national sovereignty. The legal uncertainty could induce delay in setting up actions to implement the space debris mitigation measures and the identification of "commercial" actors that could invest and operate in these domains.