The UK government has launched a plan to boost the “safe and sustainable” commercial use of space.
Science minister George Freeman has set out plans to incentivise companies to adopt best practice in space sustainability and officially recognise those who take steps to minimise their footprint on the Earth’s orbit.
In particular, the standard will help to make the UK a more attractive place to operate and invest and help unlock sustainable private investment in space in areas such as satellite development.
Speaking at the Space Sustainability Summit at the Science Museum in London, Freeman said that the huge increase in commercial satellite launches will see tens of thousands of small satellites launched in the next 10 years, but a ‘”wild west space race” risked a growing crisis of debris.
“To harness space for sustainability, we need an agreed framework of standards for measuring and managing debris, improving satellite repair and retrieval and kite-marking genuinely sustainable supply chains,”
he said.
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