U.S. International and Interagency Cooperation in Orbital Debris

Abstract

EARLY ACTIVITIES Cooperation between U.S. Government agencies on matters involving orbital debris began with the inception of manned space flight. Since the Mercury program, the North American Defense Command (NORAD) has conducted collision warning analyses for NASA for all manned space missions, using the catalog of objects in orbit, many of which were debris objects. In the late 1970's, at NASA's request, NORAD conducted tests to detect the presence of uncatalogued objects in orbit, and the agencies worked together to analyze the data. In 1976, Don Kessler of Johnson Space Center and John Gavert of NORAD worked both independently and together on understanding the behavior of upper stage explosions in space. Informal exchanges between NASA and DOD scientists on orbital debris have continued since that time. In 1981, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) pulled together the first truly interagency group on orbital debris to produce the landmark position paper, Space Debris. This activity involved individuals from NASA, DOD, and NOAA, with private industry representation, and resulted in the first broad consensus that the issue of orbital debris was real and deserved serious attention. The AIAA workshop led to a second workshop in 1982 at Johnson Space Center, involving sixty participants from across the U.S. Government and industry. The workshop ended with the recognition that formal U.S. policies and international agreements would eventually be needed. Although no formal interagency or international relationships were subsequently formed, several events occurred to keep the issue in the public eye.