Universal safety standards as a foundation of national and European space laws

The primary objective of this paper is to underscore the paramount importance of universal technical safety standards as a cornerstone of space law, consistent with the imperatives of safety and sustainability. The absence of such standards has already had detrimental effects, as evidenced by cases of forum shopping by certain space operators. Consequently, coherent technical safety standards should be universally applicable, transcending the distinction between civil and military operations in the field of space activities.

Universal safety standards should be promoted, maintained and adapted by a globally recognised body such as ICAO. This is in line with the postulates of the working group that drafted the "Montreal Recommendations on Aviation Safety and Uncontrolled Space Object Re-entries" (published by OSI, Canada). Such an approach has obvious advantages in terms of strengthening the risk management culture within the space industry and the whole space ecosystem, such as the financing and insurance of space activities. It also coincides with the visible shift from the purely compensatory approach of space law (whose regime was only triggered once) to a preventive paradigm, as demonstrated by the US government's decision to fine the operator of the EchoStar-7 satellite for failing to comply with safety standards for the de-orbiting mechanism.

In conclusion, this paper seeks to highlight the importance of technical safety standards in regulating space activities in three dimensions: (1) substantive global coherence, (2) applicability to all categories of space activities, and (3) underpinning by a multi-level governance framework.