EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This White Paper examines present and future plans for a SPS in a political-legal context. Since a SPS will have international ramifications, the analysis focuses on international political and legal matters. A number of existing international organizations, having both scientific and technical competence and a political-legal orientation, are involved in the governance of space objects orbiting at geostationary heights. The public international institutions include the United Nations, and in particular, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and the International Telecommunication Union. A private international institution with a scientific focus is the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). The United Nations has been instrumental in the preparation of two international agreements that bear directly on the uses of outer space, the Moon and celestial bodies (the space environment) by a SPS. These are the 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and other Celestial Bodies and the 1972 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects. The United States is a party to both agreements, and they have entered into force. As a chief proponent of these two major international legal instruments, the United States has sought to assure the full and free use of the space environment for all peaceful purposes. These agreements have been premised on the res communis international legal principle. Thus, the space environment is open for the use of all who are able to use it. It cannot become an area subject to the sovereignty of a nationstate. The Liability Convention is intended to prevent against misuse of the space environment. It provides that monetary damages will compensate for misuse. Since the 1967 Treaty preserves the right to the free use of the space environment, States and others having the capacity to do so are entitled to make use of geostationary orbital positions. However, a formal definition/delimitation of sovereign airspace and non-sovereign space environment does not exist. Consequently, in 1976 eight equatorial States issued the Bogota Declaration. In this they asserted that the spatial area superjacent to their territorial areas was airspace and subject to their sovereignty. The space-resource States and others have rejected this claim. The ITU, pursuant to the 1973 Telecommunication Convention and Final Protocol, continues to make allocations of radio frequencies. There has been a trend at the ITU to link the radio spectrum with the geostationary orbital position. There is no question that the ITU is charged with making microwave frequency allocations. However, such allocations depend upon the national assignments of such frequencies which are recorded with the ITU. The ITU continues to be responsible for preventing harmful interferences by competing broadcasts. It remains to be seen whether the UN, the ITU, or a new international entity will be given the principal responsibility for protecting national and international wants and needs for the efficient, economic, and equitable use of a SPS. International law has not established international microwave exposure standards. Nonetheless, the Liability Convention has established international tort law rules. If microwave transmissions of energy from geostationary levels were to cause harm to plants, animals, and tangible items, the Convention would cover the subject. Suggestions have been made for a new International Conference on Space Law. If and when such a conference is held, it is probable that scientific, technological, political, and legal aspects of a SPS will be considered.
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