Space security in the 21st century: roles, responsibilities and opportunities for Australia

Abstract

This thesis tests the hypothesis that Australia is obligated, in practical and moral terms, to invest in the security of the orbital space environment. Since the late 1940s, Australia’s involvement in activities in the orbital space environment has been framed largely by national security considerations. Space activities are the heart of Australia’s alliance with the United States and have provided Australia insights into global space activities not available to other small and middle powers. An economic development narrative, which has been poorly articulated over many years, also exists. Persistent calls by industry advocates and enthusiasts for a succession of Australian Governments to invest in a civil and commercial space industry have largely been ignored. The Australian Space Agency was established in 2018 with an economic rationale based on figures that are weak and ill-defined. The agency has been established, ostensibly, to encourage private investment in a domestic space industry that may come to represent about 1% of the global space industry. A domestic space industry is not essential to the dominant security narrative, but is dependent on assured and secure access to services and data that satellites provide. Orbital space is a profoundly dual-use environment in which military and non-military payloads share orbits and technologies. Commercial interests, with proposals to launch very large constellations into Low Earth Orbit, are challenging the paradigm that space activity is the almost exclusive preserve of nation states. To ensure ready access to orbital space in the future, the international community - including Australia - must deal with a range of threats including that of space debris in the Low Earth Orbits (LEO). The Space Agency could become Australia’s lead organisation for space security matters, helping to protect economies, national and global, that are increasingly reliant on secure and assured access to the services provided by satellites. The thesis focusses on the period from November 2007 to the end of March 2019. The evidence from this period appears to support the hypothesis that Australia is obligated to invest in the security of the orbital space environment.