National Space Traffic Management Policy

Space Policy Directive-3 of June 18, 2018

National Space Traffic Management Policy

Memorandum for the Vice President[,] the Secretary of
State[,] the Secretary of Defense[,] the Secretary of
Commerce[,] the Secretary of Transportation[,] the
Secretary of Homeland Security[,] the Director of
National Intelligence[,] the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget[,] the Assistant to the President
for National Security Affairs[,] the Administrator of
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration[,]
the Director of the Office of Science and Technology
Policy[,] the Deputy Assistant to the President for
Homeland Security and Counterterrorism[, and] the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Section 1. Policy. For decades, the United States has
effectively reaped the benefits of operating in space
to enhance our national security, civil, and commercial
sectors. Our society now depends on space technologies
and space-based capabilities for communications,
navigation, weather forecasting, and much more. Given
the significance of space activities, the United States
considers the continued unfettered access to and
freedom to operate in space of vital interest to
advance the security, economic prosperity, and
scientific knowledge of the Nation.

Today, space is becoming increasingly congested and
contested, and that trend presents challenges for the
safety, stability, and sustainability of U.S. space
operations. Already, the Department of Defense (DoD)
tracks over 20,000 objects in space, and that number
will increase dramatically as new, more capable sensors
come online and are able to detect smaller objects. DoD
publishes a catalog of space objects and makes
notifications of potential conjunctions (that is, two
or more objects coming together at the same or nearly
the same point in time and space). As the number of
space objects increases, however, this limited traffic
management activity and architecture will become
inadequate. At the same time, the contested nature of
space is increasing the demand for DoD focus on
protecting and defending U.S. space assets and
interests.

The future space operating environment will also be
shaped by a significant increase in the volume and
diversity of commercial activity in space. Emerging
commercial ventures such as satellite servicing, debris
removal, in-space manufacturing, and tourism, as well
as new technologies enabling small satellites and very
large constellations of satellites, are increasingly
outpacing efforts to develop and implement government
policies and processes to address these new activities.

To maintain U.S. leadership in space, we must develop a
new approach to space traffic management (STM) that
addresses current and future operational risks. This
new approach must set priorities for space situational
awareness (SSA) and STM innovation in science and
technology (S&T), incorporate national security
considerations, encourage growth of the U.S. commercial
space sector, establish an updated STM architecture,
and promote space safety standards and best practices
across the international community.

The United States recognizes that spaceflight safety is
a global challenge and will continue to encourage safe
and responsible behavior in space while emphasizing the
need for international transparency and STM data
sharing. Through this national policy for STM and other
national space

strategies and policies, the United States will enhance
safety and ensure continued leadership, preeminence,
and freedom of action in space.

Sec. 2. Definitions. For the purposes of this
memorandum, the following definitions shall apply:

(a) Space Situational Awareness shall mean the
knowledge and characterization of space objects and
their operational environment to support safe, stable,
and sustainable space activities.
(b) Space Traffic Management shall mean the
planning, coordination, and on-orbit synchronization of
activities to enhance the safety, stability, and
sustainability of operations in the space environment.
(c) Orbital debris, or space debris, shall mean any
human-made space object orbiting Earth that no longer
serves any useful purpose.

Sec. 3. Principles. The United States recognizes, and
encourages other nations to recognize, the following
principles:

(a) Safety, stability, and operational
sustainability are foundational to space activities,
including commercial, civil, and national security
activities. It is a shared interest and responsibility
of all spacefaring nations to create the conditions for
a safe, stable, and operationally sustainable space
environment.
(b) Timely and actionable SSA data and STM services
are essential to space activities. Consistent with
national security constraints, basic U.S. Government-
derived SSA data and basic STM services should be
available free of direct user fees.
(c) Orbital debris presents a growing threat to
space operations. Debris mitigation guidelines,
standards, and policies should be revised periodically,
enforced domestically, and adopted internationally to
mitigate the operational effects of orbital debris.
(d) A STM framework consisting of best practices,
technical guidelines, safety standards, behavioral
norms, pre-launch risk assessments, and on-orbit
collision avoidance services is essential to preserve
the space operational environment.

Sec. 4. Goals. Consistent with the principles listed in
section 3 of this memorandum, the United States should
continue to lead the world in creating the conditions
for a safe, stable, and operationally sustainable space
environment. Toward this end, executive departments and
agencies (agencies) shall pursue the following goals as
required in section 6 of this memorandum:

(a) Advance SSA and STM Science and Technology. The
United States should continue to engage in and enable
S&T research and development to support the practical
applications of SSA and STM. These activities include
improving fundamental knowledge of the space
environment, such as the characterization of small
debris, advancing the S&T of critical SSA inputs such
as observational data, algorithms, and models necessary
to improve SSA capabilities, and developing new
hardware and software to support data processing and
observations.
(b) Mitigate the effect of orbital debris on space
activities. The volume and location of orbital debris
are growing threats to space activities. It is in the
interest of all to minimize new debris and mitigate
effects of existing debris. This fact, along with
increasing numbers of active satellites, highlights the
need to update existing orbital debris mitigation
guidelines and practices to enable more efficient and
effective compliance, and establish standards that can
be adopted internationally. These trends also highlight
the need to establish satellite safety design
guidelines and best practices.
(c) Encourage and facilitate U.S. commercial
leadership in S&T, SSA, and STM. Fostering continued
growth and innovation in the U.S. commercial space
sector, which includes S&T, SSA, and STM activities, is
in the national interest of the United States. To
achieve this goal, the U.S. Government should
streamline processes and reduce regulatory burdens that
could inhibit commercial sector growth and innovation,
enabling the U.S. commercial

sector to continue to lead the world in STM-related
technologies, goods, data, and services on the
international market.
(d) Provide U.S. Government-supported basic SSA
data and basic STM services to the public. The United
States should continue to make available basic SSA data
and basic STM services (including conjunction and
reentry notifications) free of direct user fees while
supporting new opportunities for U.S. commercial and
non-profit SSA data and STM services.
(e) Improve SSA data interoperability and enable
greater SSA data sharing. SSA data must be timely and
accurate. It is in the national interest of the United
States to improve SSA data interoperability and enable
greater SSA data sharing among all space operators,
consistent with national security constraints. The
United States should seek to lead the world in the
development of improved SSA data standards and
information sharing.
(f) Develop STM standards and best practices. As
the leader in space, the United States supports the
development of operational standards and best practices
to promote safe and responsible behavior in space. A
critical first step in carrying out that goal is to
develop U.S.-led minimum safety standards and best
practices to coordinate space traffic. U.S. regulatory
agencies should, as appropriate, adopt these standards
and best practices in domestic regulatory frameworks
and use them to inform and help shape international
consensus practices and standards.
(g) Prevent unintentional radio frequency (RF)
interference. Growing orbital congestion is increasing
the risk to U.S. space assets from unintentional RF
interference. The United States should continue to
improve policies, processes, and technologies for
spectrum use (including allocations and licensing) to
address these challenges and ensure appropriate
spectrum use for current and future operations.
(h) Improve the U.S. domestic space object
registry. Transparency and data sharing are essential
to safe, stable, and sustainable space operations.
Consistent with national security constraints, the
United States should streamline the interagency process
to ensure accurate and timely registration submissions
to the United Nations (UN), in accordance with our
international obligations under the Convention on
Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
(i) Develop policies and regulations for future
U.S. orbital operations. Increasing congestion in key
orbits and maneuver-based missions such as servicing,
survey, and assembly will drive the need for policy
development for national security, civil, and
commercial sector space activities. Consistent with
U.S. law and international obligations, the United
States should regularly assess existing guidelines for
non-government orbital activities, and maintain a
timely and responsive regulatory environment for
licensing these activities.

Sec. 5. Guidelines. In pursuit of the principles and
goals of this policy, agencies should observe the
following guidelines:

(a) Managing the Integrity of the Space Operating
Environment.

(i) Improving SSA coverage and accuracy. Timely, accurate, and actionable
data are essential for effective SSA and STM. The United States should seek
to minimize deficiencies in SSA capability, particularly coverage in
regions with limited sensor availability and sensitivity in detection of
small debris, through SSA data sharing, the purchase of SSA data, or the
provision of new sensors.

New U.S. sensors are expected to reveal a substantially
greater volume of debris and improve our understanding
of space object size distributions in various regions
of space. However, very small debris may not be
sufficiently tracked to enable or justify actionable
collision avoidance decisions. As a result, close
conjunctions and even collisions with unknown objects
are possible, and satellite operators often lack
sufficient insight to assess their level of risk when
making maneuvering decisions. The United States should
develop better tracking capabilities, and new means to
catalog such

debris, and establish a quality threshold for
actionable collision avoidance warning to minimize
false alarms.

Through both Government and commercial sector S&T
investment, the United States should advance concepts
and capabilities to improve SSA in support of debris
mitigation and collision avoidance decisions.

(ii) Establishing an Open Architecture SSA Data Repository. Accurate and
timely tracking of objects orbiting Earth is essential to preserving the
safety of space activities for all. Consistent with section 2274 of title
10, United States Code, a basic level of SSA data in the form of the
publicly releasable portion of the DoD catalog is and should continue to be
provided free of direct user fees. As additional sources of space tracking
data become available, the United States has the opportunity to incorporate
civil, commercial, international, and other available data to allow users
to enhance and refine this service. To facilitate greater data sharing with
satellite operators and enable the commercial development of enhanced space
safety services, the United States must develop the standards and protocols
for creation of an open architecture data repository. The essential
features of this repository would include:

Data integrity measures to ensure data accuracy and availability;

Data standards to ensure sufficient quality from diverse sources;

Measures to safeguard proprietary or sensitive data, including
national security information;

The inclusion of satellite owner-operator ephemerides to inform
orbital location and planned maneuvers; and

Standardized formats to enable development of applications to
leverage the data.

To facilitate this enhanced data sharing, and in
recognition of the need for DoD to focus on maintaining
access to and freedom of action in space, a civil
agency should, consistent with applicable law, be
responsible for the publicly releasable portion of the
DoD catalog and for administering an open architecture
data repository. The Department of Commerce should be
that civil agency.

(iii) Mitigating Orbital Debris. It is in the interest of all space
operators to minimize the creation of new orbital debris. Rapid
international expansion of space operations and greater diversity of
missions have rendered the current U.S. Government Orbital Debris
Mitigation Standard Practices (ODMSP) inadequate to control the growth of
orbital debris. These standard practices should be updated to address
current and future space operating environments. The United States should
develop a new protocol of standard practices to set broader expectations of
safe space operations in the 21st century. This protocol should begin with
updated ODMSP, but also incorporate sections to address operating practices
for large constellations, rendezvous and proximity operations, small
satellites, and other classes of space operations. These overarching
practices will provide an avenue to promote efficient and effective space
safety practices with U.S. industry and internationally.

The United States should pursue active debris removal
as a necessary long-term approach to ensure the safety
of flight operations in key orbital regimes. This
effort should not detract from continuing to advance
international protocols for debris mitigation
associated with current programs.

(b) Operating in a Congested Space Environment.

(i) Minimum Safety Standards and Best Practices. The creation of minimum
standards for safe operation and debris mitigation derived in part from the
U.S. Government ODMSP, but incorporating other standards and best
practices, will best ensure the safe operation of U.S. space activities.
These safety guidelines should consider maneuverability, tracking,
reliability, and disposal.

The United States should eventually incorporate
appropriate standards and best practices into Federal
law and regulation through appropriate rulemaking

or licensing actions. These guidelines should encompass
protocols for all stages of satellite operation from
design through end-of-life.

Satellite and constellation owners should participate
in a pre-launch certification process that should, at a
minimum, consider the following factors:

Coordination of orbit utilization to prevent conjunctions;

Constellation owner-operators' management of self-conjunctions;

Owner-operator notification of planned maneuvers and sharing of
satellite orbital location data;

On-orbit tracking aids, including beacons or sensing enhancements,
if such systems are needed;

Encryption of satellite command and control links and data
protection measures for ground site operations;

Appropriate minimum reliability based on type of mission and phase
of operations;

Effect on the national security or foreign policy interests of the
United States, or international obligations; and

Self-disposal upon the conclusion of operational lifetime, or
owner-operator provision for disposal using active debris removal methods.

(ii) On-Orbit Collision Avoidance Support Service. Timely warning of
potential collisions is essential to preserving the safety of space
activities for all. Basic collision avoidance information services are and
should continue to be provided free of direct user fees. The imminent
activation of more sensitive tracking sensors is expected to reveal a
significantly greater population of the existing orbital debris background
as well as provide an improved ability to track currently catalogued
objects. Current and future satellites, including large constellations of
satellites, will operate in a debris environment much denser than presently
tracked. Preventing on-orbit collisions in this environment requires an
information service that shares catalog data, predicts close approaches,
and provides actionable warnings to satellite operators. The service should
provide data to allow operators to assess proposed maneuvers to reduce
risk. To provide on-orbit collision avoidance, the United States should:

Provide services based on a continuously updated catalog of
satellite tracking data;

Utilize automated processes for collision avoidance;

Provide actionable and timely conjunction assessments; and

Provide data to operators to enable assessment of maneuver plans.

To ensure safe coordination of space traffic in this
future operating environment, and in recognition of the
need for DoD to focus on maintaining access to and
freedom of action in space, a civil agency should be
the focal point for this collision avoidance support
service. The Department of Commerce should be that
civil agency.

(c) Strategies for Space Traffic Management in a
Global Context.

(i) Protocols to Prevent Orbital Conjunctions. As increased satellite
operations make lower Earth orbits more congested, the United States should
develop a set of standard techniques for mitigating the collision risk of
increasingly congested orbits, particularly for large constellations.
Appropriate methods, which may include licensing assigned volumes for
constellation operation and establishing processes for satellites passing
through the volumes, are needed. The United States should explore
strategies that will lead to the establishment of common global best
practices, including:

A common process addressing the volume of space used by a large
constellation, particularly in close proximity to an existing
constellation;

A common process by which individual spacecraft may transit
volumes used by existing satellites or constellations; and

A set of best practices for the owner-operators of utilized
volumes to minimize the long-term effects of constellation operations on
the space environment (including the proper disposal of satellites,
reliability standards, and effective collision avoidance).

(ii) Radio Frequency Spectrum and Interference Protection. Space traffic
and RF spectrum use have traditionally been independently managed
processes. Increased congestion in key orbital regimes creates a need for
improved and increasingly dynamic methods to coordinate activities in both
the physical and spectral domains, and may introduce new interdependencies.
U.S. Government efforts in STM should address the following spectrum
management considerations:

Where appropriate, verify consistency between policy and existing
national and international regulations and goals regarding global access
to, and operation in, the RF spectrum for space services;

Investigate the advantages of addressing spectrum in conjunction
with the development of STM systems, standards, and best practices;

Promote flexible spectrum use and investigate emerging
technologies for potential use by space systems; and

Ensure spectrum-dependent STM components, such as inter-satellite
safety communications and active debris removal systems, can successfully
access the required spectrum necessary to their missions.

(iii) Global Engagement. In its role as a major spacefaring nation, the
United States should continue to develop and promote a range of norms of
behavior, best practices, and standards for safe operations in space to
minimize the space debris environment and promote data sharing and
coordination of space activities. It is essential that other spacefaring
nations also adopt best practices for the common good of all spacefaring
states. The United States should encourage the adoption of new norms of
behavior and best practices for space operations by the international
community through bilateral and multilateral discussions with other
spacefaring nations, and through U.S. participation in various
organizations such as the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee,
International Standards Organization, Consultative Committee for Space Data
Systems, and UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Sec. 6. Roles and Responsibilities. In furtherance of
the goals described in section 4 and the guidelines
described in section 5 of this memorandum, agencies
shall carry out the following roles and
responsibilities:

(a) Advance SSA and STM S&T. Members of the
National Space Council, or their delegees, shall
coordinate, prioritize, and advocate for S&T, SSA, and
STM, as appropriate, as it relates to their respective
missions. They should seek opportunities to engage with
the commercial sector and academia in pursuit of this
goal.
(b) Mitigate the Effect of Orbital Debris on Space
Activities.

(i) The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA Administrator), in coordination with the Secretaries of State,
Defense, Commerce, and Transportation, and the Director of National
Intelligence, and in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC), shall lead efforts to update the U.S.
Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices and establish new guidelines
for satellite design and operation, as appropriate and consistent with
applicable law.

(ii) The Secretaries of Commerce and Transportation, in consultation with
the Chairman of the FCC, will assess the suitability of incorporating these
updated standards and best practices into their respective licensing
processes, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law.

(c) Encourage and Facilitate U.S. Commercial
Leadership in S&T, SSA, and STM. The Secretary of
Commerce, in coordination with the Secretaries of
Defense and Transportation, and the NASA Administrator,
shall lead

efforts to encourage and facilitate continued U.S.
commercial leadership in SSA, STM, and related S&T.
(d) Provide U.S. Government-Derived Basic SSA Data
and Basic STM Services to the Public.

(i) The Secretaries of Defense and Commerce, in coordination with the
Secretaries of State and Transportation, the NASA Administrator, and the
Director of National Intelligence, should cooperatively develop a plan for
providing basic SSA data and basic STM services either directly or through
a partnership with industry or academia, consistent with the guidelines of
sections 5(a)(ii) and 5(b)(ii) of this memorandum.

(ii) The Secretary of Defense shall maintain the authoritative catalog of
space objects.

(iii) The Secretaries of Defense and Commerce shall assess whether
statutory and regulatory changes are necessary to effect the plan developed
under subsection (d)(i) of this section, and shall pursue such changes,
along with any other needed changes, as appropriate.

(e) Improve SSA Data Interoperability and Enable
Greater SSA Data Sharing.

(i) The Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the Secretaries of
State, Defense, and Transportation, the NASA Administrator, and the
Director of National Intelligence, shall develop standards and protocols
for creation of an open architecture data repository to improve SSA data
interoperability and enable greater SSA data sharing.

(ii) The Secretary of Commerce shall develop options, either in-house or
through partnerships with industry or academia, assessing both the
technical and economic feasibility of establishing such a repository.

(iii) The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that release of data regarding
national security activities to any person or entity with access to the
repository is consistent with national security interests.

(f) Develop Space Traffic Standards and Best
Practices. The Secretaries of Defense, Commerce, and
Transportation, in coordination with the Secretary of
State, the NASA Administrator, and the Director of
National Intelligence, and in consultation with the
Chairman of the FCC, shall develop space traffic
standards and best practices, including technical
guidelines, minimum safety standards, behavioral norms,
and orbital conjunction prevention protocols related to
pre-launch risk assessment and on-orbit collision
avoidance support services.
(g) Prevent Unintentional Radio Frequency
Interference. The Secretaries of Commerce and
Transportation, in coordination with the Secretaries of
State and Defense, the NASA Administrator, and the
Director of National Intelligence, and in consultation
with the Chairman of the FCC, shall coordinate to
mitigate the risk of harmful interference and promptly
address any harmful interference that may occur.
(h) Improve the U.S. Domestic Space Object
Registry. The Secretary of State, in coordination with
the Secretaries of Defense, Commerce, and
Transportation, the NASA Administrator, and the
Director of National Intelligence, and in consultation
with the Chairman of the FCC, shall lead U.S.
Government efforts on international engagement related
to international transparency and space object registry
on SSA and STM issues.
(i) Develop Policies and Regulations for Future
U.S. Orbital Operations. The Secretaries of Defense,
Commerce, and Transportation, in coordination with the
Secretary of State, the NASA Administrator, and the
Director of National Intelligence, shall regularly
evaluate emerging trends in space missions to recommend
revisions, as appropriate and necessary, to existing
SSA and STM policies and regulations.

Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this
memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise
affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent
with applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does
not, create any right or benefit, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party against the United States, its departments,
agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
(d) The Secretary of Commerce is authorized and
directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal
Register.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Washington, June 18, 2018