Space Traffic Management Is Critical for National Security

A Space Traffic Management (STM) framework is critical for national and global security. With the rapid growth of commercial satellites and satellite operators, the sheer volume of space traffic to monitor and track is overwhelming, let alone the ability to identify risks and risky behaviours. This ultimately creates an unnecessary resource drain on national defence and other sectors of civilian government that monitor on-orbit activities. This paper will highlight how current events and behaviours have blurred the line between civil and non-civil operations on-orbit. Furthermore, it will showcase how our increasing dependence on space and the absence of a framework that establishes the baseline behaviour norms places additional resource strain and complexity on the military to monitor and determine belligerent activity from behaviours that are not widely accepted.