Governing space traffic: bureaucracy, politics, and orbital debris

It has become increasingly apparent that the United States and the world have moved into a second space age with far more countries and industries active in Earth orbit. The result has been a growing problem of space traffic management and orbital debris (STM/OD), a leading edge of space sustainability. The governmental response has been slow and uneven, creating a gap between problem and solutions. To the extent there has been any significant policy response in the U.S., it has been at the bureaucratic (i.e., agency) level of government. Certain agencies have extended their existing missions to cope with an issue of STM/OD new to them. This article examines the responses of NASA, the Department of Defense, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Aviation Administration, and Department of Commerce. The result has been some progress in various aspects of policy, such as research, warning, active debris removal, and regulation, but also continuing uncertainty over who does what, why, and how to cope with this worsening problem. The history of this bureaucratic response is traced and analyzed to explain how policy with respect to STM/OD has gotten to its present point, what factors have shaped it, and possible decision-making improvements.