INTRODUCTION

The unique scientific and technological achievements of the mid-twentieth century which enabled mankind to leave mother Earth and opened the door for the exploration and use of outer space have not only brought about many unexpected benefits and potentials for further advancement, both outward- and inward-looking, but have also carried with them many new responsibilities.

At the time when the first artificial satellites completed their initial orbits around the earth few people, if any, would have surmised that within the relatively short span of a little over three decades, there would be serious concerns about an increasing number of nonfunctioning, uncontrollable or abandoned man-made space objects circling the Earth. These pose an ever-increasing risk of collision with active, manned and unmanned spacecraft, and carry potentially fatal consequences for spacefarers and objects of present and future generations. Yet as we are approaching the twenty-first century, it has become eminently clear to a number of competent scientists and other experts that unless appropriate measures are promptly taken the continued, unchecked proliferation of useless space objects, commonly referred to as space debris, will indeed become a major threat to space activities and an impediment to the exercise of the freedom of exploration and use of outer space, a cardinal principle of international space law.