The global impacts of the spaceflight industry have historically been viewed as limited in scope, without significant growth, and therefore not requiring regulatory attention. As a result, little scientific attention has been paid to the impacts of rocket launches and space debris reentries on climate and stratospheric ozone. However, the space industry has recently seen revolutionary change and growth with the development of new heavy lift rockets, deployments of large low earth orbit satellite constellations, and the introduction of new space-based data services. As the visibility of a rapidly growing spaceflight industry increases, so will the public's interest to understand how spaceflight affects climate, the role it plays in the broader scope of greenhouse gas emissions, and the global response to climate change. Though recent scientific research has answered a few outstanding questions about spaceflight's climate impacts, science and technology advancements and prospects for growth have raised many more so that, in a relative sense, knowledge of spaceflight's climate impacts has declined. Scientific uncertainties, coupled with increased rocket launches and space debris reentries, mean that a space policy based on the assumption of limited global impacts is no longer appropriate. Policymakers will require a comprehensive assessment of the global consequences of spaceflight in order to make effective and informed decisions to guide spaceflight development in coming decades. Stakeholders across the space industry should recognize the urgency of the need to organize and properly fund a vigorous program of scientific research in order to understand the global impacts of spaceflight. Such a science based policy would forestall unwarranted regulation and ensure regulatory impartiality where regulation is unavoidable.