Protecting low Earth orbit from becoming the new Wild West

摘要

Assuring national and economic security is an urgent responsibility, especially as low Eart orbit (LEO) is opening to many new players. Private companies of all kinds are sending up payloads for research, technological, commercial and educational gains. Space tourists are lining up to buy tickets, entrepreneurs and high school students are putting up cubesats, and commercial satellites are providing everything from worldwide internet access to tracking a retailer's fleet of trucks, or monitoring fishing and land development.