E7.1 Constellations at Scale: Law, Ethics and Stewardship in a World That Needs More Space

Elina MOROZOVA

Executive Director, Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications

Russia

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The IAC 2026 theme, The World Needs More Space, is especially apt at a time when space activities are increasingly conducted through satellite constellations. At their best, constellations can make space benefits more widely available: supporting governmental functions and public services, advancing scientific research, stimulating economic development, and bringing spaceenabled services into everyday life. Constellations are not new. What is new today is their scale, rapid deployment, expanding geographic coverage, and their direct reach to individual users.

Taken together, these developments test law at several levels. In general international law, the fact that space-enabled services are not confined by territorial borders brings sovereign equality and non-intervention into focus, while raising considerations related to the value of the free flow of information. In space law, they engage fundamental provisions concerning the exploration and use of outer space for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, State responsibility for national space activities, authorization and continuing supervision, due regard and international consultations. In the ITU framework, they concern rational, efficient, economical and equitable use of radio frequencies and satellite orbits in an interference-free environment.

The ethical dimension is equally important. Viewed at scale, constellations raise questions of fairness, inclusiveness and regard for future generations: whether technologically advanced actors may shape practical conditions of access for later entrants; how benefits of space activities can remain broadly available in practice; how scientific interests, including dark and quiet skies, should be protected while enabling public and commercial uses; and what present users owe to those who will depend on space tomorrow.

If the world needs more space, it also needs more care in how space is used: foresight at the planning stage, including whether a need is best served by a constellation or by other space-based, terrestrial or airborne solutions; self-restraint where cumulative effects matter, coordination where activities interact, and transparency where decisions taken by some shape the conditions of space use for all. Such stewardship is not the task of one actor alone, but a shared endeavour for States, industry, the scientific community and civil society, each contributing within its role and capacity.

This year’s Keynote lecture explores how these legal and ethical dimensions, together with relevant policy, regulatory, operational and other considerations, can be drawn together within a broader approach to stewardship – one that aligns the promise of constellations with the realities of a space environment increasingly used, shared and relied upon.