The Space Safety Coalition amended its best practices guidelines to emphasize proactive sustainability and address the growing risk of space collisions.
The changes have become part of the global “rules of the road” in the Best Practices for the Sustainability of Space Operations, SSC announced Tuesday.
SSC was established in 2019 to promote standards jointly developed by commercial and government satellite operators, manufacturers of spacecraft and launch vehicles, industry representatives and other key stakeholders from around the world.
The revisions recommend approaches to avoid intentional collisions or fragmentation. The document also includes guidance on post-mission disposal of launch vehicle and spacecraft, operational cybersecurity, and spacecraft anomaly root cause assessment.
The updated guidelines were endorsed by 27 commercial space community representatives, including Charles Law, senior manager of flight dynamics at SES.
“These best practices clearly set aspirational targets to encourage all space actors to advance towards a safer, more responsible and sustainable use of space,” Law remarked. “Importantly, these best practices seek to stop intentional collisions and fragmentations, and it is encouraging to see a framework to coordinate between manoeuvrable [sic] satellites and to exchange orbit information.”