The New Race for the Control of Outer Space
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18667/cienciaypoderaereo.677Keywords:
Space race, space dominance, militarization, Space Law, satellites, space technologiesAbstract
This research-based reflection paper is the result of an exploratory study on the current use of both civil and military terrestrial satellite orbits and their utilization in a potential international conflict that incorporates the deployment of the space capacities of belligerent countries. The analysis of this issue is carried out from the framework established by the United Nations Outer Space Treaty. This study presents both a legal and technical approach that allows featuring a possible conflict and the breach of the mandate of non-militarization of outer space. To do this, initially, a compilation of historical antecedents in the space race will be presented, focusing on the milestones that allowed humanity to achieve the current technological status. Then, a normative analysis applicable to satellite technologies will be presented. Additionally, technological references of systems currently used for both civil and military purposes will be shown. From this, we will provide a context study to highlight the threats and possibilities of an international conflict by scrutinizing the institutional and military capacities being formed at the global level by the leading countries in the development of space technologies. Once thepossibility of the aforementioned conflict becomes real, the main aspects and associated regulations of the concept of the militarization of space will be studied. Overall conclusions show that the outer space is currently militarized and that an update of space regulations is necessary if we consider the long period that existing regulations have been in force.
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