Improving international governance of space debris in the era of large constellations of small satellites and China’s response

Abstract

The rapid development of large constellations of small satellites will inevitably lead to a sharp increase of space debris, and thus brings about great threat to space safety and space environment. This poses severe challenges to the current international governance of space debris. The existing space debris mitigation guidelines are neither adaptive nor effective in dealing with the space debris problem in the era of large constellations of small satellites. Under such background, it is indispensable to establish an innovative space debris governance mechanism combining rules both concerning space debris mitigation, prevention, and more importantly, space debris active removal. In this regard, China has been improving its domestic space legislation regarding space debris management at the domestic level. On the other hand, China shall continue to promote the innovative development of space debris governance mechanism at the international level, so as to cope with the conundrums resulting from the development of large constellations of small satellites.