우주폐기물 관련 국제법적 대응 분석

Since the beginning of the space development, human beings have scattered various man-maid debris into the outer space. While some are inevitable and accidental fragments of space vehicles, some mass increase of debris resulted from the intentional destruction of satellites for military purposes. Recent developments of newly space-faring countries such as China, India and Korea which competingly launch satellites and spacecrafts provide new backgrounds for concerns about rapid increase of space debris. Space debris mitigation measures include, first, lessening the possibility of production of new debris during planning and operation of space development. Second, intentional destruction of space objects should be discouraged. Third, non-operating objects in the highly populated orbits such as LEO and GEO should be replaced to the safe disposal orbits. Legal responses to the problem of space debris have been two-pronged: exploring the possibility of the application of existing international laws to the problem and adopting a new agreement. Neither bored fruit. Governments at the moment concentrate their efforts to ensure the implementation of the Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines adopted by the UN General Assembly. In the long run, a comprehensive treaty should be developed, in which the ILA draft instrument and the UN Guidelines on space debris play a central role.