Abstract:
The Space Safety Coalition (SSC) is an international coalition of satellite operators, government entities, industry representatives, and other key stakeholders that actively promote responsible space safety through the adoption and development of international standards, guidelines, and practices. Established in 2019, the SSC develops and publishes a living set of orbit regime-agnostic best practices for the long-term sustainability of space operations. These best practices are applicable to all spacecraft regardless of constellation or physical size or orbital regime. SSC’s international guidelines directly address many aspects of the 21 consensus Long-Term Sustainability (LTS) guidelines approved by the United Nations Committee for the Peaceful Use of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) in 2019. In April 2023, the SSC published an updated version of its “Best Practices for the Sustainability of Space Operations” (SSC Best Practices) document to address emerging safety and sustainability concerns more proactively in the space environment. The practices provide a model framework of topics that are critical to address for space safety. The 2023 revised SSC Best Practices improve specific guidance for launch vehicle and spacecraft disposal upon mission completion, enhance guidance for information-sharing, and add recommendations for cybersecurity, serviceability, spacecraft anomaly root cause assessment, and prevention of intentional collision or fragmentation events. The updated best practice guidelines and expected norms of behavior in space also establish a foundational set of “rules of the road” for coordination of space operations. This paper presents the updated Best Practices and highlights key revisions from the previous version.
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Riesbeck, L. and Oltrogge, D.L., “2023 Updated Space Safety Coalition Best Practices for the Sustainability of Space Operations,” NASA International Orbital Debris Conference, 4-7 Dec. 2023, Sugarland, TX.
