Description
With the growth of the private space sector in the past decade, and its development of more and more advanced capabilities, states have been presented with greater challenges as they try to manage and protect this critical infrastructure. Simultaneously, as the consequences of legislative decisions and the structural realities of private enterprises in such an ungovernable domain become apparent, it generates a degree of relative obscurity that these private space companies operate in.
This paper explores the security challenges that come with this growth and development of the private space sector as states, and particularly western states, lack clarity over key questions regarding what exactly they seek to regulate and protect, as well as how to do so and what to protect these companies from. Moreover, it identifies that as well as these challenges, there is the possibility of grey-zone activity that may offer opportunities to established actors that are not usually benefited by such ambiguities. To do so, this presentation makes usage of both existing issues in space as well as terrestrial comparisons, together with earlier work on the public-private relationship outer space.
