Supporting standardisation in the field of Space Traffic Management (STM) : EU space label : final report

The significant increase in space activities, resulting congestion and associated risks combined with the absence of one common mechanism motivating actors to go the extra mile hamper progress towards a common approach for (EU) Space Traffic Management. To address this problem, policy objectives focus on promoting a set of common standards, guidelines and best practices and developing incentives for adhering actors under a voluntary mechanism, the EU Space Label. This label could offer guidance on and confirm adherence to clearly defined criteria, help to raise awareness of interconnecting domains, and offer benefits to adhering actors. This report is based on desk research, literature review findings, inputs from strategic interviews with sector-specific experts, and discussions with high-level experts during Advisory Board workshops. This deliverable constitutes the Final Report of the "Support to Space Traffic Management (STM) standardisation" project carried out by Deloitte, KU Leuven, and GMV (hereinafter "the study team") for the European Commission, Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS). It presents the wider context in which an EU-wide mechanism is proposed as a voluntary instrument to promote adherence to a set of criteria for the safety and sustainability of space activities and to go the extra mile in tackling the problem of increasing space activities. It sets the scene by briefly describing the current STM stakeholder landscape and political context followed by an overview of existing STM standards and guidelines on EU, national and international level as well as voluntarily compliance mechanisms implemented by industry (sections 2 and 3). It then assesses the extent to which existing voluntary instruments contribute to a common approach for STM, the rationale for intervention at EU level and the feasibility of an EU-wide mechanism for STM standardisation (sections 4 and 5). It then looks into existing high-level systems which could serve as inspiration for the design of an EU-wide mechanism (section 6) followed by a blueprint and roadmap for implementing such a mechanism (sections 7 and 8). It concludes by putting forward the most suitable setup for such a mechanism based on the research, analyses and recommendations undertaken throughout this report (section 9).