UK Space Agency reporting of the Space Environment Sustainability Assessment (SESA) study outcomes

The outer space treaty identifies the exploration and use of outer space as the province of all humankind, however with increasing orbital use of up to 100,000 satellites estimated by 2030, global efforts should be made in finding and understanding the changing landscape of the space environment through continued activities. Currently, there is no globally accepted consensus view on the acceptable state/threshold for the outer space environment or an agreed model/metric to measure the impact of space activities, despite the acknowledged importance of space sustainability at all international fora. Noting the importance of evidence-based approaches for international agreements, it is felt that a key element in understanding whether future space activities are sustainable is the development of a threshold-based framework which is agreed and incorporated into global approaches for space governance/regulatory coordination.

A recent study, conducted out of the UK Space Agency’s (UKSA) Office of the Chief Engineer (OCE), supported the development of threshold-based models and begun to evaluate their incorporation into existing and new frameworks for space governance/regulatory coordination. The presentation will report on:

• Initial planning for incorporating a threshold-based model into international governance/regulatory coordination frameworks;
• Identifying, evaluating and supporting the development of UK threshold-based models to be used in assessing the sustainability of the space environment;
• Assessing the technologies that would be needed to achieve a sustainable space environment.

Ultimately, the presentation will present UKSA’s proposed actions and foundations for follow-on development work to realise an accepted threshold-based model that could be adopted into global space governance/regulatory coordination frameworks. It aims to include thinking from discussions at The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) Scientific & Technical Subcommittee (STSC) 62nd session in February 2025, where the UK will be hosting a side event alongside the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) on this topic, hosting a roundtable on the possible way(s) forward for agreement of a space sustainability framework/metric.