A Space Treaty for the Junk Age

The State and Defense departments plan to work with European Union officials to develop an "international code of conduct" to govern activities in outer space, the American Forces Press Service reported Wednesday.

The conduct code was prompted by the recent crash of a failed Russian Mars probe into the Pacific Ocean and by general concerns about space junk, the Press Service reported.

The EU has already established a draft plan that has some backers in the Obama administration but also detractors who say it will limit U.S. military options in space, according to the report.

U.S. and European officials evidently didn't think the United Nations Treaties and Principles on Outer Space was doing the trick. Amendments and annexes to that treaty have been published as recently as 1996, but the original dates back to 1966, three years before the first U.S. moon flight and an age when the stratosphere was filled with wonder rather than debris.

The new document may do a better job of managing junk, but it's sure to lack the UN document's early Space Age optimism "inspired by the great prospects opening up before mankind."

According to that document, "the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development."

Further, "states [party] to the treaty shall regard astronauts as envoys of mankind in outer space and shall render to them all possible assistance in the event of accident, distress, or emergency [whether] landing on the territory of another state party or on the high seas."