Integrate safety, security, and sustainability across space governance

Determine how to integrate safety, security, and sustainability in the governance of space activities when these issues are currently addressed separately at national, regional, and international levels, and establish how sustainability impacts should enter cost, investor-value, and insurance assessments.

Background

The chapter identifies governance and assessment fragmentation as a major unresolved challenge. Space activities generate interconnected effects involving orbital safety, security, environmental sustainability, economic value, investment decisions, and insurance, yet existing institutions and analytical frameworks often treat these dimensions separately. The authors explicitly formulate remaining questions about institutional integration and the incorporation of sustainability impacts into economic and financial decision-making.

References

Key questions remain: how do we bridge the multifaceted nature of space activities, linking safety, security, and sustainability when these issues are currently addressed separately at national, regional, and international levels? How do we integrate sustainability impacts into costs, value assessments for investors, and insurance considerations?

— Space Sustainability: The Global Commons  (2610.21517 - Frolova et al., 15 Oct 2026) in Section 4.3, “Unresolved scientific and technological needs for a sustainable future”