Sustainable space: Cooperation on satellite orbits
Amazon’s Project Kuiper provides commercial low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband Internet service. Kalpak Gude, Head of Global Regulatory Affairs for Project Kuiper, talks about cooperation on satellite orbits to keep space safe and usable for future generations.
What is the top issue for space operators and regulators in your market segment?
Advances in technology have fuelled significant growth in space activities, bringing tremendous benefits to society such as advancing global connectivity, remote sensing, disaster monitoring, and weather forecasting.
As we become increasingly active in space, it is important to strengthen international cooperation to ensure the safety and sustainability of the orbital environment.
A sustainable future depends on integrating responsible practices into satellite design, constellation management, and operations.
Key challenges include ensuring satellites are manoeuvrable, designed for end-of-life deorbit, and coordinated effectively with other operators. We need consistent practices based on international standards to ensure the orbital environment remains predictable and accessible for commercial, scientific, and security operations to derive the benefits that space can provide to humanity.
How can international cooperation help address this?
International cooperation is essential because orbital space is a shared, global environment, where no single operator or nation can act alone.
Cooperation enables standardized practices, improves transparency, and reduces risks through operator-to-operator coordination and data sharing.
Mechanisms for exchanging ephemeris data (detailing the predicted positions of a satellite or other object at specific points in time), advance manoeuvre notifications, and joint planning are critical to lowering collision risks and for the long-term sustainability of outer space operations.
In addition, initiatives like the Net Zero Space Declaration, or the Zero Debris Charter facilitated by the European Space Agency, demonstrate how collective action can reduce the risk of future debris-generating events.
By fostering alignment across commercial and governmental actors, international cooperation ensures that the rapid growth in space benefits all of humanity while maintaining safety and predictability for both satellites and human spaceflight activities.
What are the main challenges and opportunities you see for sustainable space development over the next 5–10 years?
The greatest opportunity in space today lies in ensuring that its benefits can be sustained for all of humanity.
By maintaining a safe and reliable operational environment, we can protect and expand the essential services that satellites provide. Well-managed constellations are actually safer compared to typical single satellites. This is due to their design for precision operations in synchronized patterns, the open sharing of data and information with other operators, and continuous upgrades for safety on the assembly line.
At the same time, advances in propulsion, shielding, and end-of-life deorbit systems are enabling more sustainable spacecraft designs.
Operators embedding space safety and sustainability from the start will not only safeguard the space environment; they will also help create a more resilient space economy that delivers long-term value for everyone into the future.
What is the optimal role for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and other UN organizations in tackling these issues?
ITU has a longstanding role in spectrum coordination and orbital slot management, and its leadership will remain critical as the number of space actors grows. By fostering international dialogue, ITU promotes transparency, harmonized standards, and best practices that encourage responsible deployment and operation.
Other UN bodies can complement this work. The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), for instance, also brings long-standing expertise on space sustainability.
The Expert Group on Space Situational Awareness – just established at the 68th Session of COPUOS in July 2025 – can benefit from industry expertise in advancing norms for debris mitigation, operator coordination, and space traffic coordination.
Together with the global industry, UN organizations like these are uniquely positioned to help balance commercial innovation with global sustainability goals, ensuring that space remains safe, accessible, and beneficial for humanity over the long term.
How can the public and private sectors contribute?
Safeguarding the orbital environment requires strong partnership between governments and industry. Governments provide an essential convening function, bringing all the different stakeholders together to develop policies, regulations and best practices. In doing so, they should build on existing industry best practices – such as transparency in data sharing, commitments to end-of-life deorbit, collision avoidance protocols, and operator-to-operator coordination agreements.
Drawing from these proven approaches ensures that new frameworks are both practical and effective, while also accelerating adoption, avoiding duplication, and keeping pace with innovation.
Industry complements this role by continuing to advance operational standards, embedding space safety into system design, and expanding cooperation with other operators to enhance predictability in orbit.
When governments and industry reinforce each other’s efforts, they combine regulatory authority with practical innovation – both key elements to create a sustainable and resilient space environment that maximizes benefits for all of humanity.
What does space sustainability mean for you, and why explore it at ITU?
Space sustainability means embedding responsibility into every stage of space activity – design, deployment, operation, and deorbit – so that orbital space remains a usable resource for future generations.
For me, it represents both a duty and an opportunity: a duty to reduce risks of collisions and debris, and an opportunity to strengthen global connectivity, research, and innovation.
ITU’s role is vital because spectrum and orbital coordination are global issues that require shared standards and transparency.
By bringing together nations and industry, ITU can help ensure that the space economy continues to grow in a safe and inclusive way.
Find out more about the upcoming Space Sustainability Forum.
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Header image credit: Adobe Stock
